Disclaimer: Naruto not mine.

A/N: Time references refer to the end of the previous chapter.

Two Days Ago:

"Gai. I need to talk to you for a minute." His squad captain gestured to Gai, taking him to the side of the crowded cafeteria. They spoke in low voices, Gai nodding occasionally in acquiescence. Naruto watched his temporary protector break into a wide smile and nod firmly at something the sunglasses-wearing ANBU said. Anko, sitting across from him, ignored her teammates completely, too busy shoveling rice into her mouth at a pace rivaling Naruto's own.

"Hey." The voice was deep, and close to Naruto's ear. He looked up, at the man leaning over him, face contorted. "You're still here, monster?"

Anko's head snapped up, and her chair clattered backwards as she rose to her feet. "What?" she snarled. The spike in killing intent whispered out around the room, a silent force that made the air seem heavy around them. The swell of chatter around the room cut off. Dozens of eyes focused on the table by the wall. Anko stalked around the table, quivering with anger. She grabbed the front of her colleague's shirt and dragged him down to her height. "What was that, bastard?"

Naruto hunched back in his seat, uncertain at the turn of events. 'Monster' was not unusual. Someone taking offense was, even if it was Anko, who had been nice to him in the past few days. The man wrapped his hand around her wrist. Locked together by tense muscles, he leaned down to her face. "I said the demon is still here, traitor-bitch." Anko's fury degenerated into rage. The kunai was out and driving towards his chest before the words had finished leaving his mouth. His other hand came up and caught her attack, the kunai shivering in the air between them, as both grappled to obtain the advantage.

They were split apart by a well-aimed paralysis jutsu, and several pairs of hands dragging them away from each other. The short, delicate man with his hands still holding the final seal of his jutsu glared at them. "Take it outside if you're going to fight. And don't drag children into your disputes. He's under the Hokage's protection; don't forget it." Kinjo raised his voice for the last bit, letting the words carry through the dead stillness of the cafeteria. Then he dropped his seal, and released the two. "Don't kill each other," he added, as the ninja holding them let go. "That could be a capital offense."

Anko jerked her head at the other. "Out," she hissed. He followed her out of the room, the onlookers parting before them in a wave.

"I do hope they don't kill each other." Naruto looked up. Aoba and Gai were flanking him, though he hadn't noticed them arriving. Aoba sighed, and ran an anxious hand through his left-leaning hair. "Sorry about that, Naruto-kun. Some people are just assholes."

Naruto didn't know what to say, so he just nodded. Aoba got him an extra pudding for dessert, and Naruto slowly let the confrontation fade from his mind. There was no reason to hold onto bad memories like that. Much better to just enjoy his pudding and try not to get whacked in the face by Gai's exuberant gesticulations.

Anko limped in ten minutes later, one eye puffy and starting to turn black, and a strip of black shirt tied around her upper arm. She was smiling in a way reminiscent of a predator who had just eaten a very large meal. Aoba wouldn't have been surprised to see strips of skin hanging from her teeth. She threw herself down in the seat across from the three males, and grinned widely. "That bastard won't be bothering us again," she said smugly.

"Do you think someone should look at your arm?" Aoba asked, trying to be tactful. Anko had a tendency to disregard injuries, which had more than once resulted in nasty infections.

"Nah," Anko brushed him off. "Hey Naruto, want to train tomorrow after school? Gai, you come too. This is your job, isn't it?"

Naruto nodded enthusiastically, smudging a bit of pudding across his face as he tried to wipe it away. "Yeah! That would be so cool!"

Anko laughed, and leaned over to wipe the brown mess away before Naruto could make it worse. "Let's do it, then."

One Day Ago:

"Sooo..." Naruto scratched his head awkwardly. "Are we training today?" Anko leaned against a tree, and ate another stick of dango. "You're going to get fat if you eat so many sweets," Naruto told her. "Nii-san said so."

Anko's eyes flashed. "He did, did he?" Raidou had better not have been talking about her, or when he got back his face was going to look a lot worse than it already did. "And we'll start as soon as Gai gets here."

"Why aren't you on a mission?" Naruto asked. "Ninja are supposed to do missions, right?"

The teenager grimaced. "Yeah. Gai's got broken ribs, though, and the medics can override even the captains." Not that Aoba would have petitioned for a mission; he was enjoying being lazy too much.

"Can't we train now?" Naruto whined. "Waiting is boring."

Anko's grin was almost feral. "Sure." And in the next fifteen minutes, Naruto learned more about avoiding kunai than he had even known was possible. "Duck left! Idiot, if it's going to curve, don't move back! Right right right! Just pull it out, kid, it's not serious." Luckily, Naruto healed quickly, and Anko didn't bother thinking about injuries that were anything other than life threatening.

Gai was astonished when he arrived at the training field to find his temporary ward evading a hail of lethal weapons, and laughing. Anko had brought out senbon when her kunai ran out, and was mixing shuriken in for diversity. As he stood on the edge of the danger zone, Anko dug in her pouch again. "Here, Naruto, try this!"

The explosion was small, but loud and searing. Naruto jumped out of the way, and broke into uncontrollable giggles. "That was great, Anko-san! More, more!" Eventually, Anko ran out of explosive tags, and Gai hurriedly took over before she could start summoning snakes on the boy.

The arrival of a small party interrupted the training session. Gai, in the middle of his six hundred self-imposed vertical pushups didn't look up at the pressure of approaching chakra on his senses, but Naruto, valiantly trying to balance on his hands long enough to do even one of Gai's odd exercises, fell over and lifted his head to see the visitors. "Old man!" he shouted happily, throwing his sweat-soaked and dirty body at the Hokage's pristine white robes. The two ANBU guards behind the Hokage settled back, giving him space to finish his visit.

"Naruto," Sandaime said calmly, returning the hug. "How are you?"

"Great! Nii-san is on a mission," he said proudly, "But Anko-san and Gai-san have been helping me train! You want to see?" He twisted away to run to Anko, who had straightened from her apathetic slouch against the trees to bow to the Hokage. Gai, too, had flipped off his hands to pay his respects to Sarutobi.

The Hokage caught Naruto by the shoulder, halting his proposed training demonstration. "I would love to see that, Naruto, but we don't have time today."

Naruto paused, turning back to his first friend and favorite old man. "Why?"

Sarutobi patted his shoulder. "You're going home, today." He smiled proudly at the little boy.

Naruto's face showed his confusion. "What do you mean?" he asked. "It's not dinnertime yet." Gai-san had said they could train until it was time to eat. He glanced between the tall, green-clad man and the Hokage.

"Not back to ANBU, Naruto. To a family, a real family," the Hokage explained, his face softening as he looked at Naruto.

"But I have a family," Naruto protested. His face scrunched up. "I don't want to leave!"

"What do you mean, Naruto?" the Hokage asked kindly. Then, in confusion, "Who is 'Nii-san'?"

"Raidou-nii-san," Naruto said, as if it were obvious. "And Hayate-san and Kakashi-san and Genma-san, and now Gai-san and Anko-san too! They're my family!" He took a breath. "I like it here."

Sarutobi frowned. Naruto considered the ANBU his family? He called Raidou 'nii-san' as well. That was not good. The odds for coming back unharmed from an ANBU mission were about 60 percent against. Twenty-five to thirty percent of the type of missions Squad 14 ran resulted in fatalities. For Raidou's squad, the odds were slightly better, which was part of the reason those five ninja were given these missions, but it was likely that Raidou would end up leaving ANBU only on paper. This was why Sarutobi had protested so long on letting Naruto live at ANBU. He didn't want Naruto to have to lose another family.

He took Naruto's hand in his own. It was best to separate them before the attachment could become stronger, and the loss all that much more painful. "You'll like it there, too, Naruto."

"Hokage-sama," Gai asked suddenly. "Is Naruto leaving ANBU?" His usually boisterous voice was constrained.

The Hokage nodded. "I told Raidou-san when I agreed for Naruto to come here that it would only be for a month, because there was nowhere else suitable. That time is nearly up. I'll send someone to collect his things. Thank you for your efforts, Gai-san, Anko-san." It was a clear dismissal, and the two ANBU bowed. Gai looked somber; Anko, pissed off. Still holding Naruto's hand, the Hokage led the boy away.

"But old man, I don't want to go away," Naruto whined as they walked back into the town.

"It will be better," Sarutobi said reassuringly. The soft dirt of the path through the trees squished under their sandals, and the trees blocked most of the harsh sunlight. It was pleasant there in the woods, with the scent of greenery and warm soil, and it soothed Sautobi's worries. "I found a nice lady for you to stay with, Naruto. She's got two kids; a little one, and one a bit older than you."

Naruto pouted. "Older kids don't like me." He dragged a toe in the dirt as they walked, leaving trenches in his wake. Unnoticed, the ANBU behind them automatically erased the ridges.

"These ones will," the Hokage assured him. "You can't stay in ANBU forever, Naruto. It's not a healthy environment for you." The constant tension, the instability of never knowing who died that day. Tempers always tight, half the people still on edge from missions. The habitual violence. Sarutobi remembered his own years with the force, decades ago, with an emotion approaching revulsion.

Naruto suddenly halted and spun around. "Miyagi-san, do you think I have to leave?" he asked pleadingly to the pale-haired ANBU walking behind them. Miyagi stopped, so as not to run into him, but didn't answer. His duty was to protect the Hokage right now.

The Hokage turned, curious. "Migayi-san?"

The ANBU cleared his throat awkwardly. "I do not object to Naruto's presence, but surely the Hokage knows best."

Sarutobi nodded. "You'll like your new family."

"I like the family I have," Naruto muttered rebelliously.

Present Time:

Raidou didn't protest when the nurses took Hayate from his arms, laying him carefully on a gurney and wheeling him quickly away. But when they maneuvered Genma off of Tenzou's supporting shoulder, and began to lead him down the hall, Raidou followed. One of the nurses tried to stop him, but Raidou growled at her and she backed down. Most people knew not to argue with ANBU coming off missions, or with any ninja reacting on a hair-trigger.

He commandeered the chair by Genma's bed, and refused to be moved to the second bed in the room as the medic re-healed his mutilated ankle. When Genma showed no signs of being disturbed by his location, Raidou let himself slowly relax. He was too tired to protest when the nurses finally dragged him to a bed. He was too exhausted to do more than mumble objections as they slid an IV needle into his hand and told him that if he got up before twelve hours had passed he'd find himself with a concussion worse than Hayate's. That had been reassuring, because Raidou took it to mean that Hayate would live.

They'd put something in the bag other than the standard solution of water, salts, and chakra replenishers, Raidou told himself later. That had to be why he'd fallen asleep so hard and so fast. He woke, aching and still drained. In the bed across the room, Genma was flipping through a folder of documents. His ankle was trapped in a thick plaster cast and lifted up in traction. Raidou turned his head, but they were alone in the room. "Genma," he said, and was surprised at how scratchy his voice sounded.

"Raidou, you're awake," Genma exclaimed. He grinned across the room at his friend. "Finally. I thought you'd sleep forever."

"Hayate?"

"He's fine. They've got Tenzou tied down in a room with him."

"What's wrong with Tenzou?" he managed to ask.

"Same as you. Chakra depletion, exhaustion, dehydration. You're lucky you were out of it when the medic came in and bitched about being irresponsible on missions." Genma snorted. "Idiots."

Raidou fiddled with the needle in his hand as Genma continued his rant about medics who had never been in the field. Even propped up in a hospital bed, Genma had a senbon in his mouth. He was chewing it absently as he spoke, but Raidou didn't see any of the frantic tension Genma often felt in hospitals. "Kakashi came in a while ago," Genma added. "Said the council's going crazy over this Kusa situation."

Raidou grimaced, and ripped the tape off his hand. "Has Gai been here?"

"No, why? Hokage's afraid Grass is trying to force a war."

He pulled the needle from his vein, ignoring the hot pain rippling from the puncture. "How long have we been here?"

"Got in yesterday afternoon. It's four o'clock now. Why?" Genma eyed him warily.

"Trying not to get my head bashed in by angry nurses," Raidou said wryly. "I'm going to find Naruto."

"Oh. Tell him hi from me. I can't exactly stand yet." Genma made a face at his ankle. "And I've already been screamed at for ruining the medics' hard work once."

Raidou nodded. "Are you going to be okay if I leave?"

"Yeah." Genma's eyes flickered away from his. "I've got enough to focus on." He tapped the folder. "Records of Grass contacts; Niigata dropped them off."

"What does he want you to do with them?" Raidou frowned. "I thought that was strictly Intel business."

"I know half of them personally," Genma grinned. "Can the rest of Intel say that?"

Sometimes he forgot Genma's ties with the Intel division. "Well, you keep on with that, then," Raidou said awkwardly. Even Kakashi didn't have the clearance to see most of the files in Genma's hands right now.

Genma waved as Raidou left, stumbling slightly against the door, then turned back to his papers. He wasn't technically Intel; he was a squad-bound Hunter. That didn't stop the Intel jerks from using him as often as they could. Genma, both on Squad missions and solo, had worked dozens of Intelligence missions. It was what he had trained as when he was a genin; it was what he was good at. But one infiltration gone bad, and Genma abandoned any hope of an Intel career. His lips curled bitterly as he read through the files. Yet he still couldn't let it go—he had been made for this role. So now they used him, but wouldn't let him be one of them.

They used to graduate the genin young. Not as young as Kakashi, of course, but Genma, who was nothing special, not really, had been on the field by the time he was eight, when the war was still a 'situation.' That 'situation' had taught Genma everything he needed to know, or at least thought he did, about human nature and the extremes of life.

They gave him his first infiltration mission because he was good-looking. A cute kid, an innocent kid, he could get in anywhere. Genma knew Kakashi had gotten a few of the same types, later, but Kakashi had had that hardness of a veteran even when he was six years old, a bearing of steel that made the baby-fat plumping his cheeks seem a crude lie. Genma had been silk when he was younger. Silk and honey and gold. He took the next mission because he was good at it, and because no one had died the last time. It was a good feeling, to complete a mission and come home, with all his teammates still possessing all their limbs. By then, he was trapped. The missions gradually became more than just in and out on an endearing smile and a few tears. The 'situation' was stepping up. Whispers spoke of war.

By the time the rumors were fact, Genma was tucked away with a broken mind in a hellish building on the outskirts of the village with white walls and dozens of deranged shinobi. Ten years old had been too young for what was demanded of him. One failed seduction infiltration, and four days in the bowels of an Iwa bunker, left the child 'unsuitable for missions.'

Raidou had saved him, brought him back into the world. And they both had returned to the, now official, war. But Genma, even over a decade later, wasn't healed. He was still jagged edges and sharp corners barely covered by an artificial grace and soft fluidity. He couldn't ever be a full Intel operative, but they could, and did, use him to build a network of informants stretching across the whole of western Fire country and eastern Grass country. That was the folder in his hands, as he marked the names Niigata could use to blackmail news of troop movements, bribe for village secrets, or coerce into sabotage. Genma knew that if he died, Intel would just slide a new agent into his role, but for now, it was his consolation.

A consolation that, nevertheless, was essential right now. Genma read the files with more intensity than he usually applied to anything, including life and death fights, and even drinking alcohol. If Kusa twisted this blown-up bunker into a war, or even into a 'situation,' Naruto would be the next generation on the field. Something inside Genma wrenched when he thought of that joyful little boy pinned on the floor in a dark room in enemy territory, crying and in pain. Naruto had promised to protect him; the least he could do was make sure he never ended up where Genma had.

Raidou slipped through the halls of the hospital without attracting notice. On the floor below, he broke into a storage closet with a quick application of chakra, and liberated a clean uniform from the stack of standard chuunin wear kept for discharged patients. His own uniform had mysteriously disappeared from the hospital room, one of the nurses' ways of keeping wayward patients confined to the building. Luckily for Raidou, nearly all the ANBU knew where the nurses stored the extra uniforms.

Dressed in nondescript black, he made his way easily out of the building. This time of day, Naruto should be done with school already. Raidou made a list of all the possible places Naruto could be in his head. HQ, was the first option, but the farthest away. The park was likely, and close. Training fields came next, but ANBU's were at headquarters, and there were literally dozens of common grounds. Park first, he decided.

But the park, when he reached it, breathing more difficultly than he wanted to admit, was empty. A single swing moved absently in the breeze, a lonely reminder of children not present. He headed towards headquarters next, to find Gai. But Gai was nowhere to be found, and the ANBU on desk duty said Aoba's squad had been sent to the western border on patrol. Raidou checked Naruto's room, but it was empty. Empty even of his clothes and weapons, and the stack of cup ramen he insisted on always having. A reflex, perhaps, the ramen; too many days without food instilled eating habits and hoarding habits that were difficult to break.

Naruto was undeniably and inexplicably gone. Raidou's nerves were still strung tight from the mission, and his adrenaline level shot up again. Where was Naruto?

He hurried back to the desk, but the ANBU said he hadn't seen Naruto since yesterday.

The Hokage tower was rarely empty, and Raidou's unsubtle entrance drew several stares from the chuunin running errands in the lower halls. "Excuse me." One of the ninja stepped in front of him, blocking his way down the hall. "What is your business here?" Raidou glared. Sure, he probably looked suspicious, with red eyes, an ill-fitting uniform and sleep-tangled hair, but that was no reason not to let him see the Hokage. And if that bureaucratic paper-pusher was looking at his scar and not his eyes, he was going to get a fist in the face.

The chuunin was saved an unwanted rearrangement of his features by the appearance of the Hokage himself. Trailed by several council members, jounin and a reinforced ANBU escort, the Hokage was listening to a subordinate reading from a stack of papers as the entourage hurried through the halls. "Hokage-sama!" Raidou shouted, pushing carelessly past the chuunin.

Sarutobi looked up at the shout, but simply lifted a hand in dismissal. Raidou ran after the group. "Hokage-sama!"

"You can't bother the Hokage now," one of the jounin snapped. "He's very busy."

Raidou shoved the man out of his way, and finally got the Hokage's attention. "What is it?" the old man asked, looking at the distraught ninja but not slowing. He waved the ninja with the papers silent.

"Where's Naruto?" Raidou demanded, too agitated to maintain politeness.

"At home, I assume," the Hokage told him. Even in the midst of a crisis he would spare a moment for Naruto.

"He's not," Raidou's muscles tensed even more. "I checked everywhere, cafeteria, his rooms, the training grounds—"

"Gai didn't tell you? The month ended, and I found a more suitable home." The Hokage had reached a door, and he turned to grip the doorknob.

Raidou stopped. "A more suitable home?" he repeated, shocked.

The Hokage nodded, and smiled benevolently at him. "Thank you for watching over him in the interim." He pulled open the door and disappeared, his train of staff sweeping in behind him, leaving Raidou alone in the suddenly desolate hall. He slumped back against the wall, feeling weak, exhausted, and alone. Naruto was gone.

Momotami-san's house was a lot like Sasaki-san's house, and nothing like home. Small and immaculately clean, it was a modern construction of wood siding and unadorned concrete. Like much of the city, it stood slightly lopsided but steady. Compared to the space and complexity of ANBU, it was miniscule and boring. Momotami Kimiko had a daughter, older than Naruto, and a toddler son. She gave him his own room at the back of the house, and smiled at him when the Hokage dropped him off on her doorstep.

In the morning she sent him to the Academy with a packed lunch and a smile. Naruto tried to smile back, but he was bewildered and still annoyed at being removed from ANBU without his opinion even being asked. Sad, too, at his removal. Momotami-san's smile was sweet, but it wasn't Raidou's lopsided, scarred smirk. But he had to admit that her lunch was better than Raidou's as he opened the black lacquer box at lunchtime. Old rice balls from ANBU's kitchens did not measure up to much of anything, let alone Momotami's carefully designed bento.

"Ne, Naruto, what's with the lunch?" Kiba stuck his nose where Naruto spread the bento out on his knees. They were sitting under the tree in the yard behind the school. Chouji rocked gently on the single swing as he munched his way through a bag of chips. Shikamaru had laid himself out on the grass just beyond the tree's shadow, eyes trained on the sky as he ate absently. Kiba sniffed Naruto's lunch, then snagged a piece of fish with his fingers. "It's good!" he said around the mouthful.

"Hey! That's my lunch!" Naruto protested, pushing Kiba's face away and hunching protectively over his food. He snatched one of Kiba's chips in retaliation, and ate it before the Inuzuka could take it back.

Kiba stuck out his tongue, then pulled it back in to say, "Your brother go to cooking school or something? What happened to those rice balls?"

Naruto's smug grin faded. He looked down at his lunch, and prodded a piece of fish with his chopsticks. "Not living with nii-san anymore," he mumbled. "Got sent to some old hag again."

"Well, she cooks good!" Kiba said, dodging around Naruto's chopsticks to filch another piece of his lunch.

The blond boy swatted half-heartedly at his hand and mumbled a noncommittal "Ehh."

Momotami-san picked him up after school, and they walked back to her house. She carried his backpack and lunch box, but Naruto wouldn't let her hold his hand. He shoved his hands in the pockets of his shorts, and sidled a few steps away from her. Kimiko sighed, but didn't press the issue. "How was school today, Naruto?" she asked, instead.

"Fine," he mumbled.

"Anything interesting happen?" she tried.

"Kiba put a frog in the teacher's coffee." Naruto couldn't suppress the grin that bloomed on his face, remembering that. Oh, how the chuunin had yelped.

Kimiko clicked her tongue in disapproval. "That's not a nice thing to do." The smile faded, and he shrugged uncaringly. "What do you want to do this afternoon?" she inquired, trying to keep the conversation going.

"Can you help me with my shuriken?" he asked.

Kimiko was surprised at the request, but she shook her head. "I'm not a ninja," she said with a forced little smile. "And you shouldn't spend all your time training, Naruto. Kids should have time to play, and have fun."

Naruto scowled. "But I want to train. Raidou-nii-san would have let me train."

She sighed softly. "Naruto, Naruto."

"What?" he demanded petulantly, kicking at a rock.

"How about I make cookies when we get home?" Kimiko suggested, turning the subject away from violence. She wasn't really comfortable with knowing Naruto had lived at ANBU, and was training to be a ninja. Her daughter was in a civilian school, not the Academy, and when her son was old enough, he would also not be attending the Academy. But Hokage-sama had asked her to let Naruto continue at the Academy, so she would let him. That didn't mean she had to approve of his dream to be a ninja.

"Can you make ramen?" he asked, mind effectively on food now. "I like ramen."

Kimiko's eyes crinkled. "Do you want me to teach you?"

"Yeah!"

After cookies, a lesson on making ramen broth, and dinner (which was just as good as lunch), Kimiko turned Naruto loose to play for the few hours before sunset. He made his way to one of the training grounds nearby, and practiced throwing shuriken at a log. It was lonely, and frustrating, because no matter what he tried, he couldn't seem to get the new technique the teacher had shown them today to work.

In this technique, he was supposed to hold three shuriken in each hand, and throw all six all at once at the log. If he did it right, they should hit in a vertical line. Of course, the technique could be adapted to aim the projectiles wherever the thrower wanted them, but a straight line was most basic. Uchiha Sasuke, the stuck-up, black-haired boy in his class, had gotten it on the first try. Naruto, after three hours practicing, still could only get two to stick in the log. The rest bounced off or missed entirely. His face fell as yet again the six shuriken hit the target with a dull thud and dropped to the dirt. Naruto walked over and bent down to retrieve the metal stars. Time to try again.

It took Raidou nearly two hours to find the right chuunin to ask about Naruto. It took an hour more and a complex genjutsu to find an opportunity to break into the records room, and twenty minutes to crack the lock on Naruto's file. Then he had to put everything back the way he had found it, erase his chakra prints, and reset the locks with a falsified chakra signature. Genma could have done the chakra forgery better than Raidou ever could, and Raidou's efforts would be immediately noticed by anyone looking more closely than a cursory glance, but it was good enough for now. He would take whatever flak came out of this later. Now, he had to go find Naruto.

The house was in a relatively nice side of town, quite different from where Raidou had grown up and lived before moving into ANBU housing. He straightened his shirt, hoping he didn't look too disreputable, and knocked.

The woman who opened the door was of middling height, slightly plump, with graying brown hair tied loosely back in a short braid. She was wiping soapy water off her hands onto a stained apron tied over a civilian outfit. He checked instinctively for weapons, analyzing the threat she posed. He came up with: absolutely none. The woman wasn't a ninja, wasn't even a particularly threatening civilian. "Hello," he said politely.

"Hello," she mirrored, sounding a little surprised at the sight of a shinobi on her doorstep. A shinobi whose over-bright eyes and pale face suggested he ought to be in a bed instead of knocking on people's doors. Despite being obviously unwell, Raidou still maintained the poised grace of the elite shinobi, and even without the rippling scar glaring down on the woman he would have been imposing.

"Is Uzumaki Naruto here?" Raidou asked, trying to smile at the woman who had stolen Naruto away. Idiot, he told himself. Not her fault.

Kimiko pursed her lips. "Why?" She was not going to let random, violent-looking shinobi into her house.

"I'm a friend," Raidou said. "I just wanted to talk to him a bit."

Kimiko's eyes suddenly flashed with recognition. "You're Namiashi, aren't you? The Hokage said something about you. Namiashi...Ryou?"

"Raidou," he corrected. "Yes. Can I talk to Naruto?"

"No." Kimiko's face softened, but she shook her head firmly. "I want Naruto to settle in here. Please don't come back."

Raidou stood immobile for a moment, unable to believe the complete rejection. "I just got back from a mission, can't I—"

"I'm sorry, Namiashi-san, but no. Naruto does not need more confusion in his life. Please leave."

"Confusion!" Raidou barely restrained himself from grabbing her shirt and pulling her up to yell in her face. That would only get him permanently blacklisted, and confirm whatever prejudices she had about ninja or ANBU. "I'm part of the first family he's had, ma'am. Surely I can say goodbye. Please," he almost pleaded.

She remained stubbornly in the doorway. Crossing her arms over her chest, she moved her head in a negative. "I'm sorry, Namiashi-san. But it is better like this. Cut the bonds cleanly."

"Have you ever had bonds cut?" he demanded fiercely, repeating her words with a hint of disgust. "Do you know how it feels to lose someone without even a word of farewell?"

"Namiashi-san—"

"You don't. You couldn't have, if you think like that." Raidou's hands clenched into fists by his sides. "You're wrong," he said more quietly.

"Leave now, Namiashi-san," Kimiko ordered firmly. "Or I'll have the police remove you."

Raidou snarled silently, turning quickly away.

"Namiashi-san." He looked back. "I will tell him you came by, if you wish." Kimiko twisted her apron nervously. "I just think seeing you would encourage his discontent," she added, trying awkwardly to explain herself to the scarred man.

Raidou nodded sharply, then walked down the street. Kimiko watched him until he turned the corner, then shut her front door. She sighed, and ran a hand over her hair. It was so sad, that doing the right thing should hurt so much.

Raidou waited until she had gone back inside, then slipped around to the back of the house, keeping out of sight. A quick check in the windows and a scan for Naruto's unique, and slightly disturbing, chakra signature revealed that he was not at home. So Raidou scaled a convenient tree near the road, and waited. It was getting dark, but he wasn't about to abandon Naruto to some random civilian woman without even saying goodbye.

Naruto slouched down the street, hands shoved deep in his pockets, his shuriken gathered up and tossed back into his pouch. The sun was setting, and he still couldn't get the throwing thing to work right. Scuffing his feet along the pavement and scowling at his sandals, he almost missed the whisper from the tree. "Psst, Naruto!" Raidou dropped out of the tree in a liquid drip of black cloth. Naruto jumped back, startled, but then his frown dropped away to be replaced by a huge grin.

"Raidou-nii-san!" He threw himself at the ANBU, hugging his knees, and was enveloped in strong arms in return. "Missed you," Naruto mumbled into Raidou's shoulder as the man knelt down in front of him.

"Missed you, too," Raidou whispered. "You can't let," he searched his memory for the name he had glimpsed in the file, "Momotami-san know I was here."

Naruto nodded. "Okay."

"How have you been?" Raidou asked, pushing Naruto away to look him over.

"Gai-san and Anko-san are nice," Naruto said, then shuddered a little. "But weird. Really really really weird."

Raidou laughed quietly. "Yeah."

"But then the old man made me come here," Naruto told him. Raidou was used to Naruto's casual treatment of authority, but still found it funny when Naruto called the supreme commander of ANBU and all the shinobi in the village "the old man."

"Is she good to you?" he demanded, concerned.

Naruto rolled his shoulders. "She's nice. But it's not the same. I want to go home." His blue eyes peered hopefully up at Raidou. "Now you're back, can I come home?"

Raidou sighed, a mixture of sadness and frustration. "The Hokage says you can't. I can't disobey him."

Naruto's face fell. "Oh."

"But I'll visit," Raidou assured him. "Every day that I'm in the village. As long as you don't tell Momotami-san," he added conspiratorially.

Naruto's habitual grin reappeared. "Heh. That's not as good as going back, but okay."

Raidou leaned back against the tree, angling his body so he was out of sight of the house. "So what were you doing out so late?" he inquired.

"Training," Naruto told him, sitting down on his lap. "The teacher showed us this new shuriken thing, but I can't get it right. Sasuke can though," he added sourly.

"Show me," Raidou told him. They stood up, and Naruto pulled out six shuriken, arranging them between his fingers. Crossing his arms in front of his chest, he flung the weapons at the tree, arms ending up outspread behind him.

Five of the shuriken bounced off the tree. One stuck, wobble a little, then peeled slowly out as its weight was pulled down by gravity. It hit the dirt with a soft thud. Naruto glowered at it. "See?"

"Pick up your shuriken," Raidou ordered. Naruto retrieved the weapons and returned to his position. "Curve your fingers a little more," Raidou advised, moving Naruto's hands into the correct form. "When you throw, snap your wrists and follow all the way through with your elbows and shoulders. Try."

This time, three of the six hit the tree and stuck. "Better," Raidou praised, knocking a stray shuriken to the ground with a quickly thrown senbon. "Try again. No, you've got your fingers back in the old position. Curve them." Naruto threw the weapons again, and embedded four of them solidly in the wood.

"Yes!" he shouted joyfully. "It's working!"

Raidou grinned back at him. "You still need more practice," he reminded the boy. "Four out of six is good, but not good enough." But his tone held no harshness, and he clapped Naruto on the back. Naruto dashed over to the tree to pull out his shuriken and try again.

"Naruto!" The two looked guiltily over at the house, and Raidou slipped into the shadow of the tree. "What are you doing?" Kimiko demanded from the doorway. "It's already dark out! Come inside, now."

From his hiding place, Raidou waved goodbye as Naruto headed reluctantly inside. The door closed behind him with a click, but now Raidou was smiling as he sauntered down the road in the dusk.

A/N: So, longer wait, but a 6,000+ word chapter! That's twice the average length, folks. Please excuse any uncaught errors in this chapter; still looking for a beta (hint hint). Coming up next: Naruto-ness, ANBU-angst, and political pressure. NAP! Also, updates may slow down eventually (blame real life).

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