Sarutobi would be lying to himself if he said he hadn't expected something like this. He had anticipated Anbu Dog's presence in his office ever since the Mad Dog of Konoha had held himself back from striking a killing blow at Noriko. The Anbu that is famous for his ruthlessness against adversaries was now standing before him, mask in hand. It was the Anbu way of asking for retirement from their bloody career.
Kakashi stood tall and rigid, body defensive and vulnerable at once without the mask. He did not expect the request to be granted, but he's here to make a case come hell or high water.
"How long have you been in Anbu?" Sandaime lit his pipe.
"… Two years and ten months, Hokage-sama," they both knew the information. Two years marks the limit of how most ninja could stomach the life of an Anbu. Kakashi's request to leave Anbu is well within reason. His other demand however…
"I see,"
Kakashi kept his silence.
"Why do you wish for the child to be your ward?"
He had been prepared for this question, "The clan of Hatake owes the survival of their line to her parents. We wish to ensure this debt is repaid,"
Sarutobi lit his pipe and watch the Anbu kept very still, "mmm,"
He puffed slowly, stamped a few documents. The secretary came and went, not bothering to even glance up at the silent shadow before the Hokage's table.
"You will submit yourself immediately for mental evaluation. You will schedule for yourself, bi-weekly evaluation therapy session with the Yamanaka clan until I deemed proper,"
So, the hokage thinks he's crazy, well, no matter, he will attend however many sessions of therapy as they saw fit. He will let nothing stand in the way of proper care for his sensei's daughter. "Understood,"
"Hire a genin team to clean out the Hatake compound, a jounin's bachelor pad is no place for a little girl,"
"Yes, sir,"
"Noriko will check in with Dr. Minami every week, her welfare is of utmost importance,"
"Understood, sir,"
"Good," Sarutobi blew a smoke ring, "Now, dismiss,"
Kakashi leapt out of the window, mind already listing down all the things he needed to do. The next two weeks were busy ones for Kakashi, he had chosen a time lull between missions to approach the hokage and thus have plenty of time to plan. Two teams of genin were hired to sweep, dust, mop, mow and brush the neglect away. Kakashi had busied himself choosing what to keep and what to throw from the house. He never realised how much junk he had until now.
Also, there is the question of where to keep his Icha Icha…
It wasn't until the genin had left and Kakashi was busy pondering over cuts of meat at the market when it suddenly occur to him that he hadn't actually ask Noriko if she wanted to move in with him. His overly active genius imagination, set free from its Anbu prison, supplied a variety of scenes where Noriko refuses his invitation and cried, sneered, screamed and displayed pretty much every kind of negative and/or hostile feelings towards Kakashi. Shoulders slumping from the mental assault, he pondered on the best ways of breaking the news when a solution presented itself almost immediately.
A pair of old ladies discussing general politics of the village made a random observation that floated immediately to his attention.
"…Hokage-sama is kind!"
Hokage-sama, of course! Hokage-sama! Noriko already had contact with the Hokage. An introduction by the hokage will serve to let Noriko-chan trust him best! With this in mind, Kakashi abandoned the market place and hot footed towards the Hokage Tower.
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Iruka is sixteen years old and had never met the Container in his lifetime. He had heard about it, her, of course, and seen her from afar, but who hadn't? As a teacher's aide, it was his job to supervise detentions, make copies of worksheets, notes and clean up the field after kunai practice. In short, he was something like a paid servant to regular teachers. As a teacher's aide, he was also in charge of tutoring and is responsible for bringing weaker students up to par. He didn't really mind the job, it was as close to teaching as he gets at the moment.
He hadn't minded that is, until he was informed that the Kyuubi container had been slotted into his class.
The jounin Hatake Kakashi was suppose to bring the six year old into his class. Uzumaki Noriko had lost quite a few months worth of classes and under the insistence of her new guardian, had signed up for remedial classes. Iruka frowned, far be it for him to criticize, but just what kind of suspicious parental figure would signed their child up for remedial classes when she had already enrolled two years earlier than most students?
A knock at the door interrupted his musings. Iruka straightened at his tiny desk and tried to look serious and teacher like, "Come in,"
And thus Iruka received his first actual glimpse of one of Konoha's most famous legends. Hatake Kakashi himself.
The first thing one would notice about the Copy nin would be the quirky tilted hitae-ate. Although the suspicious looking mask fought for attention too. Then there was his attitude, the sheepish body language and haunch way of standing screamed harmless layabout. Topping it all was a crazy shock of white hair that seemed perpetually windblown.
Trying to hide behind the Copy nin's knees was a small figure, a child. A henohenomoheji scarf covered her nose and face. She had a bandana with a hemehemekutsuji (female version of the henohenomoheji) over her left eye in a quirky tilt just like the copy-nin, she peeked out anxiously from behind his knee. A white teruteruboze clutched tightly in her fist. It was all Iruka could do to stop himself from going 'aww' over the cuteness of it.
Iruka could feel the aww factor kicking in even as he tried to remain professional. He rocked back on his feet and coughed into his fist. "Ah, Hatake-san…"
"Kakashi,"
"Eh?"
"Please," the visible eye inverted cheerfully, "call me Kakashi," he patted the blonde and red fuzz on Noriko's head, "This is Nori-chan,"
'Nori-chan' peeked out from Hatake's hand and inverted her eye at Iruka.
Aww…
Aww!
Aww!
Cough.
"Um, please to meet you… Kakashi-san, and Nori-chan too, of course," he bent closer to the child and was please to see a blush of pleasure at being addressed by an 'adult'.
Thus was the first meeting of many meetings between three of Konoha's arguably most important people in the future.
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Iruka-sensei looked awfully young. Naruto had always remembered him as being a little larger than life. Capable of being extremely angry, and extremely nice in parts. The gawky teen before him didn't look much like the broad shouldered man in Naruto's memory. Generally Naruto tried to avoid teenagers while growing up, they tend to travel in packs and are prone to egging each other into doing stupid things. Like throwing rocks at the Jinchuuriki. Like challenging to see who would dare graffiti the Jinchuuriki's apartment. Like who had the balls to break into the Jinchuuriki's 'den' for a souvenir.
Stuffs like that.
So Naruto hid behind Kakashi's leg and curved his eyes as cutely as possible, he'd practice for ages before the mirror for two days in preparation for this meeting. The scarf and bandana had been inspired, now people would think Noriko was actually trying to imitate Kakashi and not in fact, trying to hide the terribly suspicious whisker marks instead. Also, the hemehemekutsuji was truly a brilliant inspiration. He thanked the Hinata in his memory for that lovely afternoon making teruterubozu with Tea Country orphans on one of those extended missions. He could hardly remember what the mission was about even. But the shining faces of children, the scent of plum blossoms and the flutter of white cloth with faces dancing in the wind would forever linger in his mind. It was truly a special time.
Kakashi had been unusually affectionate. So much that Naruto felt a little uncomfortable about taking advantage of it. That is, he felt uncomfortable about it until he reminded himself sternly that this is still Mororo's dream world and any time this dream Kakashi would probably stab him or molest him or something and Teenager Iruka would probably be egged on by Teenager Miz-
Naruto suddenly crouched, both hands cradling his stomach where a stab of pain erupted. And then Kakashi was there, patting his- Noriko's stomach carefully, trying to check for abnormalities with his chakra. Iruka hovered fretfully and fearfully in the background. Considering what was contained behind the seal of his stomach, both men were brave indeed to stay in the same room with the Kyuubi container.
"I'm fine, Kakashi-san," Naruto replied in his best cheerful voice, "I think I had too much cake,"
"Maa," Kakashi, the legendary Copy nin was suddenly all knees and elbows, "Maa, are you sure? We could see Minami…"
Naruto curved Noriko's eye, "It's okay now, um, I think I need to go," he lowered his voice, "pee pee,"
Kakashi actually leapt up at the 'mission', "Sensei!" he snapped, "We need the toilet, now!"
To his credit, Iruka remained faintly bemused by Kakashi's high handed behaviour. With an air of a professional host dealing with unruly customers, he gracefully directed the pair.
"Ah, of course, this way please,"
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After a brief toilet trip, where Kakashi hovered anxiously outside the ladies section, garnering suspicious looks from passing kunoichi, Naruto reassessed his situation. While Iruka drone on about some theory of weapons usage, Naruto doodled on Noriko's notepad, thinking deeply. Somewhere, a building collapsed without any reason. Thus far, he had tried to keep his cool, trying his best not to panic in the face of the many trials thrown by Mikomi. Thus far, there was the horrible injury factor, followed by revived third hokage, mean doctor, nice Kakashi, teenage Iruka and a suspicious reaction to the Traitor-with-that-huge-shuriken-thing. It had been more than six months now, he was sure of it, reasonably sure anyway. Whatever.
That time limit had gone beyond what most normal people could do with normal people chakra. Unless Muchiro had a tailed beast powering her fruity eye hypnosis thing, this had gone far beyond what even the craziest megalomaniac would do. And he wasn't even badly treated either! Of course, it could be a ploy to lure Naruto into a false sense of security before springing a deadly trap of dead zombies blaming Naruto for all their deaths. Even if it is, things aren't so great that he'd actually suffer any kind of permanent trauma over the loss of it.
As each week passes, the nagging thought hidden in the back of his head grew louder and more annoying. What if, this is real? What if, he had gone back in time? What if, he had plunged head first into a strange, way beyond human explanation plane of existence which would eventually be revealed at a most critical moment but not anytime sooner?
These things bound to happen. Actually, they happened so often around him that it never became quite that strange anymore. He'd rescued princesses, battled demons, destroyed flying palaces, mastered toad taijutsu techniques, suck ramen through his nose and had a nine tailed demon sealed into his stomach.
The bell rang for a break and Naruto went out automatically with the other kids. He set about looking for a quiet place to sit where others won't bother him about his mask. Naruto now had some insight on how Kakashi must have felt when Team 7, and pretty much every other person in the Five Countries, had bothered him about his mask. So, he tucked Noriko's small body behind some leafy bushes and was just about to snap the chopsticks apart when soft sobs carried through his security blanket. Not wanting to catch whoever it was' attention, Naruto scoot away carefully, throwing a last look to check the identity of the crier when he suddenly stopped.
There, grubby and dirty under an overhang of bushes was a matted crop of pink hair. Naruto paused in his escape attempt.
/
It was Haruno Sakura who finally killed Uchiha Sasuke, the traitor of Konoha. In the epic battle that involved many summons, senjutsu power and sheer desperate determination, Haruto Sakura landed the killing blow that damaged the Sharingan welder beyond repair. He had been trying to lure her to his side. She had faltered, or appeared to falter, and finally gotten close enough to punch the freak in the neck with a chakra powered fist.
She had been entirely professional after the blow, directing her slugs to take the head apart, crushing the famed eyes rendering them useless to scavengers. She then broke down in Naruto's office, begging to leave the Leaf Village. The reason Sasuke believed her to be on his side was because he thought she was still in love with him. He was right, only, Sakura loved the village more. Killing a person one had harboured such great love proved too painful for her. So Naruto had granted her leave, with only a half joking advice not to gamble her future away at casinos.
She didn't.
Instead, she was found by a half deranged Kabuto who transferred the last of Orochimaru's tainted cells into her medic nin body. This proved to be breakthrough Orochimaru needed to find the perfect host. Sakura's body proved stable and enduring, able to withstand multiple regenerations and not lose one iota of her healthy appearance. The only thing he could not get rid of was the pink hair.
It was funny how Konoha's nightmares from then on come with pink hair. Naruto did not have many regrets in his life, but killing Sakura-turn-Orochimaru was one of them. People had given up on the Uchiha bastard long time ago, Naruto's forgiveness does not include the life and safety of his child. Sometimes, he just wished the Itachi had been more through in his fratricide.
/
And now the Nightmare of Konoha was crying pathetically in front of him. Her thin, fragile neck well within his grasps. Even in a weak eight year old body, Naruto had more than enough strength to pinch the life out of another eight year old. Stepping silently, Naruto placed the lunch box on the floor and approached. Whether it was instinct, or something else, Sakura suddenly lifted her tear stained face just as Naruto's hand breezed against the hair on her neck.
"W-" Sakura gulped, "What are you doing? Who are you?"
Naruto froze. What am I doing indeed. Had he gone so far into madness that he would kill a child for no reason? Orochimaru hadn't even set foot in Konoha for years, there was no reason for Kabuto to even consider Sakura as a container unless he was desperate. He stepped closer. Frightened, Sakura scrambled back, trying to get away from the stranger.
"Wh-Who are you? G-get away from me!"
Who am I?
It was question Naruto had not pondered for a long time. Who he was had been defined by others long ago. He was the Kyuubi brat, the Dead Last, the Loser that no one would play with. He was the Orphan. He was the great Rokudaime. He was the destroyer of S-class ninjas. He was the Fool on the team equation. The Yondaime's legacy, the Victim, the Sacrifice, the Loudmouth. He was many things. But above all-
Naruto step closer, boxing in the frightened girl. He brushed her greasy matted bangs back and stared into watery green eyes.
"I'm a friend,"