"I want to become Nartuo's guardian."

Sarutobi looked at Anko with a curious look, knowing that he had heard right, but wanting for her to say it again just so that they were both sure of what she said. He wanted to know why she suddenly wanted to watch over Naruto, as he knew that they never really talked to each other much. When the little blond would report to the Hokage at least a few times a week, he would probably say something if a suggestively dressed woman were to talk to him if the case were to ever arise.

"Hmm? You wish to become the guardian of Naruto? Tell me why." He didn't bother beating around the bush when it came to his surrogate grandson. Now usually, he would have instantly said 'no' to anyone who would try to adopt or take in Naruto, but that was only because he feared that people would only do that in order to get closer to him to kill him. Anko was different, though. She obviously held no hate for the little boy, and had no reason to. She was an orphan before the Kyūbi attack, and in truth had no friends at the time, so nobody that she knew was hurt by the nine-tailed fox.

"Because… Because he needs someone to look after him." She said hesitantly, still unsure about why she wanted to become the boy's guardian. She just knew that she had to do it, but she didn't at all know why.

"Yes, he does, but how does that reason make you any more qualified to look after him than the others who have asked the same things of me?" He asked her, getting a look of surprised from the pineapple-haired Chunin.

"Others? What others and how many were there?" She asked a bit frantically, questioning why the Hokage wouldn't let Naruto have a parent figure in his life.

"If I remember correctly, the Naras have asked me to give them custody of him, as well as Yamanaka Inoichi, and I believe even Chōza has done the same as well. Hiashi has asked to allow the Hyūga clan to watch over him, and surprisingly enough, an Inuzuka has asked the same. Tsume, I believe." Anko couldn't believe what she was hearing. Those were all great clans, but why hadn't Sarutobi allowed them access to look after the boy?
As if the Hokage were reading her mind, he spoke up once more just as she opened up her mouth and raised a hand to tell her to keep quiet until he was done. "Before you ask any questions, I know that I should have let them take care of him, but I have no way of knowing if their intentions are true or not. I understand that I could have Inoichi come here and use his clan techniques, but what if they are conspiring against Naruto-kun? I cannot take risks like that, not with him. I've failed them far too much to let anything else come to him."

Somewhat, Anko was able to understand what he was getting at. In a world where your killer could be your best friend, a little paranoia was always good for you. It wasn't all too surprising to hear that all that the Ino-Shika-Cho trio all decided to house the boy, since when one made a decision, the other two usually agreed with it, especially when it was Shikaku who was making the decisions. However, she was more surprised to hear that the stoic Hyūga clan was also wishing to take in the boy. As far as she knew, no big numbers were taken off that clan during the attack six years ago, so maybe they weren't doing it out of revenge for their fallen clansmen. She could see the Inuzuka's trying to get a hold of Naruto, since they had been known to pick up 'strays' everyone once and a while.

However, she didn't know what his last statements meant. She assumed that it had something to do with the Kyubi, but his reasoning was much more than that. He had promised the boy's parents to look after Naruto, and he wasn't going to let them down any more than he already had.

Anko stood there and thought heavily about why she wanted to watch over Naruto. It was true that she felt bad for him, and shat she could obviously relate to him, but she knew that there was more than just being able to relate to him.

"I…" She started once more, but held back since she simply couldn't piece together the right combination of words that would explain why she wanted to watch over the little Uzumaki. Pictures of him flashed through her mind of the few times that she had seen him, smiling as brightly as the sun and not caring what others said or did to him. Surprisingly, she saw herself in him; always doing what she wanted without caring what the villagers did, always having a reason to eat their 'food of the gods', and hiding their pain under a mask of fake emotions.

She wasn't sure how long she was standing there lost in thought, and the fact that it was the dead of the night didn't help at all either. Sarutobi sat there patiently and also had little of an idea of how much time had passed. It hadn't been more than several minutes, but the silence made it seem much more than that.

Breaking the silence, the hokage and a good idea that he would share with Anko and maybe that would give her some more time to think about her answer. He had already deemed her worthy of looking after his surrogate grandson, but he wanted for her to know why she wanted to take care of him, as he already had a pretty good idea of why she opted to do so. He wasn't the Hokage for nothing, and had good reasoning for holding such a title. He was just as smart as he was powerful, making him a dangerous foe in multiple instances. "Anko." He said, bringing her attention back to the real word. "Since it seems that the Kyuubi will not be helping Naruto this time, he will most likely be unconscious for a few days. Take this time to think about why you want to watch over him. When he wakes up, I will send one of my ANBU to get you and you can give me your reasoning then, okay?"

Nodding slowly, Anko said nothing to her Hokage as she stood there, still trying to think over why she wanted to watch over him. She knew that she was far from being the best person to look after a kid, and really, she wasn't even sure that she could do it. Sure he had some spare money after missions, but she had heard that the Junchuriki would put a restaurant out of business if he wanted to. She didn't have the money to pay for that kind of food, and although Dango was her go-to food, she still had to eat healthily. She was a ninja after all, and she needed to be healthy at all times.

"If that is all, Anko. It is getting late, and I believe that you have some thinking to do. Take care." Sarutobi said to her, getting another nod from her before she walked out the door. From the calm and focused look she had on her face, it was easy to see that she was already thinking about this and taking it seriously as well. That was Odd for Anko, especially considering that this was more about Naruto than it was about her.

The Hokage knew, though, as the two of them were both equally important in this matter. He decided not to elaborate on it further, and instead rose from his seat, planning on retiring to his quarters for the night.

Naruto groaned lowly as he opened his eyes. He had no idea where he was, but it obvious wasn't Konoha. He had been all over the village, and he had not once seen a sewer design like the one that he was currently in. Although the sewer appeared dirty and filthy, there was no scent whatsoever.

The young blonde slowly picked himself up off of the ground and looked around some more. He had realized that there was no pain when he stood up, and upon inspecting his body, he was bruise free, something that was usually common for him, but still off. Usually there would be very light and small markings from the previous cuts, but his body was perfectly fine.

Suddenly, a threatening aura of power made itself known to Naruto, causing him to flinch and take a step back. After a moment of silence, there was a low and deep laugh coming from afar. Naruto wanted to know where he was and how he was perfectly healed, so he followed the sound of the voice where a large gate with a piece of paper on it stood in his way from continuing further. Naruto was small anough to pass through the gates, but he didn't as of yet. He didn't know what was on the other side, and he was being unusually cautious about the ordeal. Suddenly, a deep voice spoke to him.

"My jailer decides to visit me at last… To what do I owe the honor?"

The voice was obvious sarcastic, and although nothing could be seen from the other side of the gates, Naruto knew that whoever was speaking to him was on the other side. The young blonde took a small step over to the gate, now examining the piece of paper with the kanji of 'seal' on it.

Naruto didn't know what to say to the voice, as he wasn't sure what it was talking about in the slightest. He had just been called a jailor, but it made no sense to him. He didn't own a prison, and had no relations to one. Deciding to ask the obvious question, Naruto took another small step towards the gate.

"Who are you…?"

A deep and low laugh could be heard from the other side of the gates, and as time passed, it slowly got louder and louder.

"Who am I…? WHO AM I!? I AM THE GREAT KYUBI NO YOKO!"

Its thunderous laugh could be heard all throughout the sewers, causing Naruto to take a small step back. Suddenly, its laughing ceased, and there was nothing but silence for a moment. Slowly, the Demon Fox walked up to the bars and looked down at its container, an evil smirk on its face. In reality, the Kyūbi had actually called Naruto into the seal, and only asked the first question to humor itself.

Naruto didn't say anything to the demon fox, his eyes wide and his jaw just slightly down. He had heard about the demon fox attack before when he was sneaking around, but he had no idea that he was connected to it. It all made sense now that he came to the realization of what was going on. Suddenly, his jaw clenched, and his eyebrows narrowed the tailed beast.

"So you're the reason I always get beat up! Because I have you locked up in me! Baka-fox! Why don't you just leave?" He was clearly mad at the fox, but the beast didn't seem offended. The Kyūbi understood the hate that came from the village, as it did attack it six years ago, and did a fair amount of damage. To be fair though, it wasn't really it that was attacking. The Kyūbi knew that someone was controlling him do attack Konoha.

"If it was that easy, Kit, I would have already left your body by now… We are bound until your natural death."

The Kyūbi was getting off track, and shook its head slightly at the boy who was looking at him questioningly, wondering what it was talking about.

"That is not why I called you here, though. I want to make two things perfectly clear."

It spoke seriously as it practically glared down at the boy, but not sending any killing intent his way. Naruto remained quiet, wanting to know what it was going to say.

"The first… I did not attack Konoha out of my free will. I was controlled into doing so and had no choice of my actions." The Kyūbi wanted to make it perfectly clear that it did not intentionally attack Konoha, and by the nod that Naruto gave it, he seemed to have understood that only someone with an impossible amount of power would be able to do such a thing.

"The second thing is that I do NOT plan on having a weak container. As a Jinchūriki, you are expected to use my power, but I am expecting you to be able to fight your own battles without even thinking about calling on my power. There isn't going to be someone to jump in like what happened just moments ago…" It smirked evilly at Naruto as it remembered the provocatively dressed purple haired woman, who swooped in and saved Naruto and it.

Naruto wasn't unconscious when Anko had dropped in and saved him, but he wasn't able to look up at her, and her voice was dulled to the point where he could hardly hear anything. He knew that he was lucky for her to come along, and wanted to find a way to thank her if he ever saw her again.

"So… Where are we?"

The Kyūbi should have expected this question, as it had seen Naruto's memories, and he hadn't leaned a whole lot in the six years that he had been alive, so the great beast decided to explain it to him. "This is your subconscious. The mindscape. With enough training, you can reshape this world with a simple thought, and maybe then I can finally get a nice place to live for once…" It muttered the last part as it looked down at Naruto, slowly laying down to attempt to become level with the boy.

"But enough of that." The Kyūbi spoke, making Naruto look up at it wondering what it was about to say next. "You need your rest, and let this be a reminder that you cannot rely on me to keep you alive. I expect you to become strong, and when I find you worthy, I will allow you to use my powers."

Naruto nodded at the demon fox and it nodded back to him. The young boy watched as the world around him became black, and smiled to himself knowing that he had possibly just made two friends. The first one was the Kyūbi itself, who didn't seem as bad as he thought it was going to be; and the second one was the person who had saved him. He knew that he would have to ask the Hokage who had saved him, but that could wait until he woke up.

Back out in the real world, two ANBU watched over the boy, making sure that nobody would come in and attack him while in this state. It was so odd seeing him there, not being healed, and not smiling in the least.

As if Naruto were reading their minds, his face cracked a slight smile that could be seen by the two ANBU. Without knowing it themselves, the two of them smiled as well. The one with the cat mask dropped down from her position on the ceiling, slowly walking over to Naruto. Inu simply watched as Neko stood at the side of his bed, examining his face, seeing if the smile that they had detected was actually there or not. It had only been a few hours since Anko had dropped him off, but it seemed like an eternity since she had last talked. "

"I guess we should take better care of him now that Anko seems a little protective over him, huh Inu?" She was only given a nod in response, but it was all that was needed. They both knew that Anko would chop their heads off for not protecting him right, and she would make sure that it was as slow and painful as possible for the both of them. Both of them shuddered at the thought of Anko torturing them, and silently decided to be more protective of the boy.

Tada! While I'm not all that happy about this chapter, I do feel that I can move on now. I just can't seem to make Anko's emotions real enough during this part, but I hope that I can improve in the future.

Also, please check out the poll on my page so that you can vote for who will be paired with Naruto. As I said before, Naruto will not be paired with Anko in this, so don't even bother talking to me about the two of them hooking up in this.

With that out of the way, I'll see you all next time!