A/N:

I'm am soooo sorry for the long wait!

Enjoy the chapter! Birthday Party!

I don't own Naruto. Only Tori and the other OCs are mine

"Nee-chan?" Naruto asked again, a hint of fear in his voice. Normally he wouldn't be afraid with, or even of, Tori, but she still had one hand over his eyes, her other supporting him on her hip as she carried him to his surprise party. The party itself was going to be small: just Kakashi's ANBU team, a couple other ANBU and jounin that were friends with Kushina and Minato, and Anko, if she decided to show up. The Hokage promised to make an appearance to reassure Naruto, but everyone knew he wouldn't be able to run out on his paperwork for long.

"Just a little longer, Naru-chan," Tori appeased the young boy, opening the door to a brightly lit room. That was another decision on her part; she didn't think that half a dozen trained killers jumping out of the dark would have a positive effect on the young boy held in her arms.

Unmasked ANBU and regular jounin alike dotted the room- more people had appeared than she expected. Glancing around the room, Tori noted who had come.

Kakashi, of course, Ame, Tenzo, Itachi... That's a surprise, she thought, nodding with a smile at the young Uchiha. While Itachi was neither ANBU or a jounin, the nine year old was a born prodigy, a fact that made his father, the head of the Uchiha clan, ecstatic. Well, as visibly happy as an Uchiha can get.

Itachi was, in the eyes of most of the village, one in a million. Even at his young age, Itachi has surpassed many of his fellow Uchiha with his mastery of his already manifested Sharingan. He graduated the Academy in a single year at the top of his class. His genin team was sure to be entered into the next Chuunin Exam. It was almost sure that Itachi would be a chuunin by ten.

"Okay, Naru-chan," Tori said in a quiet voice, lifting her hand away from the blonde's eyes. He blinked slightly at the light, his eyes quickly adjusting to the brightness.

"What's going on?" he asked warily. Tori smiled, shifting him so that he could see the room better.

"Your other birthdays weren't very happy. This is to make up for it," she explained. She carried him further into the room, heading directly towards Kakashi, who held a small rectangular package in his hand.

"Happy birthday, kid," he said, smiling under his mask. He gently tossed the box in Naruto's direction. As he had expected, Naruto flinched away from the box, but Tori caught it in her grasp. She pressed it into the young boy's hands and smiled when he stared at it both curiously and warily.

"What is it?" he asked after a long pause. The room quieted before someone laughed, breaking the silence. Everyone turned to the window in surprise, recognizing the purple haired kunoichi.

"What does it look like, gaki? It's a present. You open it," Anko ordered, a rare, almost gentle, smile gracing her normally intimidating surface.

Naruto still looked at the box warily but accepted Anko's orders, pulling his small hands to the lid of the box, prying it open. What was in it surprised Tori. Naruto reached into the box, snatching the scroll and pushing the now empty box aside. He opened it, only to find a single seal on it.

Naruto glanced at Kakashi, his face unsure, but the silver-haired ninja only nodded at Tori. The medical ninja set the young boy down and unsealed the storage scroll to summon the items that were Naruto's real presents.

One puff of smoke later, Naruto was surrounded with three different objects. There was a set of dulled kunai, a large bag of sweets, and a small stuffed animal. Naruto looked at the plush red fox for just a moment before pulling it into his arms, ignoring his other gifts.

The other ninjas were startled by Kakashi's present. Several cleared their throats, many more glanced pointedly at the nineteen year old merely shrugged, the movement hardly perceptible. He rolled his eyes, looking back at Naruto, who was now cooing to the stuffed fox.

"Say thank you to Kakashi-san, Naru-chan," Tori said softly, reminding the boy to use his manners. Naruto barely glanced back at the ninja who had given him his first birthday presents, muttering a quick 'thank you' before resuming to hug the stuffing out of his new toy.

"Time to open my presents!" Tori sung happily. Naruto paused, his eyes widening slightly, as if to ask, 'More?'

Tori had also sealed her presents for the young blond boy who she had gotten attached to in the five years she had been helping guard him. She paid the boy no preamble, simply pulling out the scroll from one of many safely secured inside her medical pouch. She released the seal in a flash and smoke appeared once more, parting to reveal Naruto's next presents.

Like Kakashi, Tori had bought Naruto a bag of candy. Also like Kakashi, she thought to his future as well as to his present. She had gotten him new clothing that were in much darker tones than his old tattered clothes. This way, if she or one of the other ANBU took him out of HQ for some reason, such as to visit the Hokage, he would not be as easy a target. Also, those old clothes were hideous.

Her next present, something she had actually collaborated with Kakashi on, was a dulled set of shuriken. Like the blunted kunai, Naruto didn't seem very interested in these as he moved on to present number four.

His next present was a simple necklace with a small Uzumaki swirl pendant. There was a small tracker seal on the back, just in case, but the gift was intended to be for show, to represent the Uzumaki Kushina in him. This was especially important as the Hokage had decided that, when Naruto reentered the village, his name would be his father's.

~Flashback~

"Hokage-sama," Kakashi said, respectfully bowing his head to his superior. The Sandaime looked up from his paperwork, an almost grateful expression on his wizened features.

"Ah, Kakashi," he greeted, a little surprised at the ANBU's appearance. He had Naruto moved into the ANBU HQ just last night, but it was the boy's birthday. More specifically, the day the Kyuubi was sealed into him. With that thought, his eyes darkened with concern. Kakashi, seeing this, was quick to reassure the Hokage of Naruto's safety.

"So what is this about?" Hiruzen asked suspiciously. One of the things he had learned was to be very very careful around the man that some of the other countries had taken to calling Sharingan Kakashi. If wronged, he could orchestrate a revenge that would have made Kushina, an infamous prankster, proud.

"Naruto-kun. I'm aware that he can't spend his entire life hiding away at HQ. He's his mother's son; he'll get bored and he'll break out, one way or another. I think that the more he knows, and the sooner he knows it, the better. That way, when we reintroduce him to the village, he will understand why the villagers hated him as a child and won't hold it against them."

"That's not all," Hiruzen noted, studying what was visible of Kakashi's face. The silver haired ninja nodded curtly.

"He should carry Minato-sensei's name," he concluded. Hiruzen's pipe actually fell out of his mouth before the old man began spewing arguments and the occasional declaration of Kakashi's apparently weakening mental state. When he paused to breathe, Kakashi leapt at the chance to speak.

"Hokage-sama, with all due respect, I don't think it matters how many enemies Minato-sensei made in the War. Naruto-kun is going to be raised around ANBU; he'll be trained whether or not anyone approves of it. Also, this is a way to help protect Naruto from the villagers. Uzumaki Naruto was the jinchuuriki. Namikaze Naruto is just a boy who was given an unlucky name."

"No one will buy that. His age is too close, his hair too uncommon. He'll be recognized in a heartbeat and then what?"

"No one will recognize Naruto-kun. There are ways to prevent that: henge, genjutsu, even hair dye would work. I know that Mouse is getting him new clothes as we speak. Also, it'll be years before Naruto is reintroduced to the village. They might not forget him, but the memories will be distorted enough that he won't have much of a problem."

"There are too many variables. Namikaze is a dead name now, he'll be noticed too quickly." Hiruzen's arguments were weakening and both of them knew it.

"So what? The Yondaime had a son. It won't be hard for the villagers to believe that he was hidden to avoid provoking Iwa anymore."

"Whisker marks," Hiruzen said after a pause. Kakashi shrugged.

"From his mother, Kushina. A handful of people knew that she was its jinchuuriki until her death. Just say that he inherited the whiskers from the sealed Kyuubi within her. As long as Naruto-kun knows who his parents are, his story is very believable and mostly true."

"And when the villagers find out about this... scheme?"

"Easy. He, the Yondaime's son, was facing very bad odds. To protect both him and Konoha's future assets, you ordered that he be given 24 hour protection. Hell, I can forge a letter from Minato-sensei instructing you to do so if his wishes of Naruto being viewed as a hero fall short."

Silence.

A bird sang outside.

The Sandaime sighed to himself, folding his hands over his desk.

"You're altering the birth certificate," he ordered Kakashi before becoming more serious. "I want you to start bringing him back into the village when he's seven. Give him a mask. Outside of ANBU, he is Fox. When he's old enough to join the Academy, he can make the decision to go or not."

"Training?"

Hiruzen sighed again at Kakashi's simple question.

"Strictly defensive until he asks for something more difficult. Even then, wait a while. He still deserves as normal a life as we can give him."

"Mouse has offered to introduce him to her niece."

"The Hyuuga heiress?" Hiruzen inquired. When Kakashi nodded, the Sandaime laughed a bit hollowly. "Good luck with Hiashi. Now, will that be all?"

"Hai."

"Dismissed," Hiruzen nodded. Kakashi shunshined away, leaving him with his mountain of paperwork once more.

Somewhere, Tobirama-sensei is laughing, he thought sullenly, lifting his brush once more.

~End Flashback~

Just as soon as Naruto was done examining the Uzumaki swirl on his new necklace, Tori's hands shot forward and deftly grabbed the necklace, unclasping it, setting it around Naruto's neck, and clasping it once more before he could register what she was doing. She retreated her hands and he smiled brightly at her, his hand moving to his necklace.

"Two more, Naru-chan," she said, pointing to two presents that had been wrapped, unlike the others. With new confidence, Naruto returned to his presents and, true to her word, two more presents were sitting beside him on the floor.

He grabbed the nearer one and immediately ripped the paper away. It was a book, something that surprised the young boy. His hand went to Tori's leg and pulled gently on her pants, bringing her already focused attention to him.

"What's this?" he asked curiously, turning the book over in his hands. Tori smiled, kneeling down to turn the book the right way. On the cover, in bold ink, were the words "Tales of a Gutsy Ninja".

"This is my very favorite book," Tori said, smiling. "You were named after the main character in this book, a very good and brave ninja. This was one of your father's books, given to him by the author, who was his sensei. Actually, he was the one to recommend it to me."

"You knew my tousan?" Naruto asked, his eyes wide. Tori nodded but, before Naruto could ask her a slew of questions, she lifted the last present and pushed it into his hands gently.

"Open this one carefully," she ordered. He obeyed, still looking very curious and just a little fearful.

He ripped the paper away from the rectangular shape in a diagonal, the paper tearing away to reveal three and a half grinning faces, smiling up at Naruto. Naruto tore the rest of the paper away hurriedly to see the rest of the framed photograph.

In a very ordinary kitchen were four unordinary people. Ninja, to be more precise. At the far left was an older man with long white hair pulled into a spiked ponytail, his famous summoning scroll secured to his back: Jiraiya of the Sannin. Standing beside him was one of his favorite students, a tall man with shockingly yellow hair and deep sky blue eyes; the man that would eventually rise to Yondaime Hokage: Namikaze Minato. Sitting in a chair beside Minato was his only and rather pregnant love, a redheaded girl with a fiery temper and a painful punch, the second Kyuubi jinchuuriki: Uzumaki Kushina. Lastly, on the far right, was a man that everyone in the room immediately recognized. His silver hair was in its familiar disarray, his Hitai-ate and mask covering nearly all of his face. There, looking happier than most of the ninjas at the party had seen him, was a younger Hatake Kakashi.

"Damn, Scarecrow, you look happy... It's disturbing... I kinda like it," Anko said thoughtfully, examining the photograph over Naruto's shoulder. Kakashi shrunk back, forcefully reminded of the bonds he had lost.

"Who's this?" Naruto asked Tori, his index finger circling Jiraiya, Minato, and Kushina. He, like the rest of the room, had recognized Sharingan Kakashi, who was currently trying to disappear under Anko's appraising gaze.

"This... is your family. This is your godfather, Jiraiya of the Sannin. He is the one who wrote the book I gave you. It was his best work. The man next to him is... Well, he was your father. His name was Namikaze Minato. He was a very popular man, brave and strong. He stood by what he thought was right and did everything he could to protect Konoha. This was your mother. She was my best friend... Uzumaki Kushina... I met her on our first day at the Academy," Tori said, her voice drifting off.

~Flashback~

"I'm going to be the first female Hokage!" A girl with vibrant red hair shouted at the top of her lungs. Hyuuga Tori, who was already infamous for tainting the Main House's reputation with her own occasional outbursts, grinned at the girl.

When the redhead finally sat, her face as red as her hair with embarrassment as the rest of the class, especially the male population, scoffed in response. One, a boy with bright yellow hair explained that being a Hokage was more important than she thought.

That was Hyuuga Tori's first impression of both Uzumaki Kushina and Namikaze Minato.

When she later learned that her father, who was at the time Head of the Hyuuga Clan, tried to arrange a marriage between her and Minato, she went to talk to Kushina first.

When Kushina found her love of complicated and often dangerous pranks, Tori found her natural talent with medical ninjutsu and remedies.

When their genin teams were picked, their sensei mourned when he was selected for both girls.

They were best friends in an almost cliché way. When Kushina was teased about her hair, or Tori about her eyes, they would help the other beat the offender into a pulp. When done, they'd go to Ichiraku's to laugh about how stupid some people can be. They became jounin together.

When Kushina heard that her village, her home country, had been destroyed, its few survivors scattered and broken hearted, she spent the night, then the week, then the month at Tori's house. She had completely moved into Tori's new home on the outskirts of the Hyuuga Compound less than six months after hearing the news.

When Tori was invited to ANBU, and consequently threatened with the Caged Bird Seal, she told only Kushina.

When Kushina found out she was pregnant, she told Tori first.

~Flashback ends~

Pushing the memories back for later reflection, Tori returned her attention to the son of her best friend. It didn't surprise her that he had wormed his way into her heart as easily as he did. He was so much like his parents in both looks and personality, right down to his already discovered addiction to ramen.

Looking at the photograph in Naruto's arms, Tori was reminded of a promise that she made to Kushina not a week before her death. She promised to protect Naruto. To keep him safe and happy whatever happened to her or Minato.

Her eyes watered and she forced the tears away, smiling at the five year old that had finally had a birthday without pain or fear.

Other presents were given away, the only memorable being a hug and a stick of dango from Anko, both rare events. As a rule, Anko never showed affection aside from the usual flirting and innuendos. As an even harsher rule, no one was allowed so much as to look at Anko's dango.

Yes, Naruto was special for everyone.

A/N:

Aww, Naruto x3 *hugs*

I'm going to apologize in advance for not being able to give a follow-up update very soon. There's something up with my lungs, so I won't be doing much aside from make-up work from the school that I'm definitely going to be missing. I'm pretty sure it's bronchitis, but my dad's freaking out, so I'm probably going to a doctor to make sure nothings wrong...

He's a bit paranoid...

Anyway, I hope you liked the chapter!

^.^ Susie *cough cough*