Summary: Itachi is introduced as Naruto's guardian and Kakashi's assitant teacher. He sits with Naruto at the Slytherin table and has to threaten him with no ramen to get him to eat. After dinner, Itachi gives Naruto to Gaara to look after for the night while he patrols the castle with Kakashi. But before he goes off for guard duty, he follows Haku, Gaara, and Sasuke to the Slytherin common room so he could tuck Naruto in bed. Itachi is confronted by Malfoy, so he decides to have a little fun with his future student. But before things could escalate, a scream is heard. Who screamed? And how exactly did Itachi get his nickname?

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, the Harry Potter series, or any of the characters. They belong to their respective owners.

Warnings: Out of character, boy x boy relationships, yaoi, language

Pairings: Sakura x Lee, Ino x Chouji, Tenten x Neji, Hinata x Kiba, Temari x Shikamaru, Tsunade x Jiraiya, Iruka x Kakashi, Kurenai x Asuma, Zabuza x Ibiki, Haku x Gaara

Possible Future Pairings: Naruto(uke) x Sasuke, Kankurou x Shino, Hermione x Ron, Malfoy x Harry, Anko x Itachi, sadly I can't think of anyone for Gai yet so I might do an outside character just for him. If you have a suggestion for a character for Gai, please tell me. It's hard to think up a good one for Gai. I might do Remus x Sirius as was requested, but it probably won't happen until way later in the story.

A/N: Thank you all who review. Another chapter and this one is longer. I think my shortest chapter had something like a thousand words. Pretty long compared to some other stories, but pretty short in mine. This one is longer so please enjoy. I'm pretty sure I caught all of the mistakes, but if I didn't oh well. I'm sure you can figure out what I meant. School is so evil, but yay, I have a minimum day Friday. That means I can type a lot of my chapters so they will be ready to upload on the weekend. And next week is Halloween. Speaking of which, do you want to see any specific costumes for the Halloween feast in the story? Send me your ideas and I'll let the readers vote on their favorite idea. Send your ideas in as soon as possible so I can make a list for readers to vote on. I will of course give credit to those who suggested it, unless you do not want credit and tell me so. Great, now I want candy. (Drooling on the keyboard, thinking about Snickers, Twix, Skittles, Air Heads, etc.) XD Enjoy, and don't be afraid to review.

'Call me cute and you die.' --Demon talking/usually the Kyuubi, sometimes Shukaku

'Stop reading my mind' --thoughts

"Shut up, stop talking." --speech

"Ohayou. Buenos dias. Bonjour." --different language other than English/usually Japanese

Chapter Eleven: Memories, Babysitters, and Jokes?

Both Sasuke and Itachi were next to Gaara and Haku in a flash. Naruto was lying on the bed in a large black shirt; his eyes open wide as he stared at some unseen horror. Gaara was desperately trying to calm the blonde, but every time he touched the small child he would cringe away and whimper. Itachi gripped Naruto by the shoulders and forced him to look him in the eye. Naruto let out one more whimper before his eyes rolled back and he fell limp in Itachi's hands. "Itachi, what did you do?"

Itachi gently lifted Naruto so he could cradle the unconscious boy. "All I did was stare him in the eye. My Sharingan wasn't activated, plus I don't think he even saw me." Itachi was unnerved. He had worked with the blonde when they were both Anbu, before he left the village to play spy. He also didn't know it was Naruto at the time either, he had known him as Fox. He remembered his first encounter with the young Anbu.

Naruto had slammed into him, having just been thrown out of the Hokage's office. Instead of apologizing, he had stood up and dusted off his uniform. Itachi had placed a hand on his shoulder, stopping the small boy from leaving. Slowly, Naruto had turned to stare at him. He was slightly surprised when he saw the Fox mask, and decided to teach the newest Anbu some manners. Activating his Sharingan, Itachi had stared the small Anbu in the eyes.

Naruto had froze for a moment when Itachi had glared at him with his Sharingan eyes, then he suddenly disappeared. Itachi had his guard up instantly, but Naruto had slipped past it. He had been thrown against a wall with a kunai about to be plunged into his eyes when Naruto suddenly dropped the blade and started to back away from him.

Although they were both wearing masks, Itachi had been able to see Naruto's eyes. All he saw was absolute terror. It was in that moment that he had been intrigued by the child Anbu and sought to uncover his secrets. It wasn't until six years after the Uchiha massacre did he encounter him again. Itachi shook his head at the memory.

He had arrived at the appointed time to pass on his report, only to find no one there. Itachi had been worried; his usual contact was always on time. He was about to leave when a kunai was flung at him. Dodging the attack, he was shocked when he saw a blonde boy glaring at him with the same icy blue eyes that the Anbu Fox had. Unsure if the boy was friend or foe, Itachi decided to use the signal that he always used with his normal contact.

"The weasel has come out of hiding, but only to fool the eyes of his hunters." Itachi waited as the blonde stared at him before he slowly answered. "Ah, but the weasel is nothing more than a hunter in disguise." Itachi relaxed slightly, but he still kept his guard up. He studied the boy as he approached, shocked when he saw the whisker like marks that adorned his cheeks. He had seen those marks before.

"Naru-chan?" Naruto flinched at the name but a grin was quickly forming as he smiled at the older and taller man. "Yeah, it's me 'Tachi. I'm assuming that you're the one that Sasuke wants to kill. I was surprised when I found out that you didn't actually kill your clan. I was royally pissed because the old man didn't tell me in the first place. So how have you been?"

Itachi frowned. Why was Naruto here? And why did he know a triple S-class secret? He couldn't be more than a Genin, even with how talented he was. Itachi briefly remembered the few times the Hokage had assigned him to guard and train Naruto. He had resented being forced to watch over the demon brat, but after watching him for a day, he was shocked at what he saw.

He knew the villagers would hate Naruto, but he hadn't expected them to openly show their hatred. What had really shocked him was how Naruto smiled through all the hate, never once letting them see anything but a happy face.

He had followed Naruto out to the forest later that same day and he felt disgusted with himself when he saw the loneliness and sadness that Naruto's face displayed. His eyes no longer held a faint gleam of mischief. Instead they looked like those of an ancient man, not the eyes of a young child. Itachi had leaned in to get a closer look, snapping a small twig in the process. The noise was barely even distinguishable in the sounds of the forest, but Naruto's head had shot up with his eyes locking on where he was hidden.

Itachi cursed under his breath as he quickly and silently teleported to another spot. He was about to leave when he saw a group of men approaching Naruto. Even though he was far away, he was able to smell alcohol on them. They reeked of it. Naruto quickly stood up and began to back away, making sure that there was nothing behind him. He only managed to take twelve steps back when the drunken men caught up and surrounded him. For a moment, they did nothing, but soon one of the four men threw a punch.

Naruto had tried to dodge, but it connected with his left shoulder. Soon all four men were attacking him from all sides. Itachi was about to intervene, but stopped when he saw the way Naruto was taking the hits. They connected, but he took very little to no damage. The boy was only four and he was expertly taking attacks. He himself hadn't been that good when he was that age. He sat back and watched for another few minutes, until one of the men drew a blade.

The man had stabbed Naruto in the shoulder before Itachi could disarm him. Angry, Itachi quickly knocked the four men unconscious, hitting them a little more than was necessary. He looked down at Naruto just in time to see the boy pull the blade from his shoulder. His face betrayed no pain, but his pale skin was a sign of blood loss. Itachi stepped forward reaching a hand out to take the boy's hand, but Naruto dropped the blade and was slowly backing away from him.

Annoyed, he activated his Sharingan, intending to cast a genjutsu on the boy. He hadn't expected the boy to stare at him in terror for a moment before his eyes rolled back in his head and he fell forward in a dead faint. It was reflexes alone that made him catch the boy.

After seeing the villagers' hate, Itachi decided to take the boy directly to the Hokage. He tied the four drunks to a tree before he left at a sprint, Naruto's tiny body cradled in his arms. It took him close to ten minutes to reach the Hokage tower and another five to be let into the Hokage's office. He was irritated that upon seeing Naruto, the guards had tried to prevent his entry. He would have killed the two Anbu guards if Sarutobi hadn't stepped out of his office to see what was going on.

When he saw Naruto's unconscious and bleeding form, his face drained of color as he ordered Itachi into his office. Before he closed the door, he had whispered a few words to the guards before slamming the door in their faces. Itachi quickly told the Hokage what he witnessed, not waiting to be asked. When he reached the part about the guards tied up in the woods, the Third stopped him for a moment while he called in his guards.

Itachi could smell the fear coming off of them. Whatever the Hokage had said, it had scared them enough that you could smell their fear. As soon as they left, Itachi continued his story. While he was talkig, the Hokage had Naruto stretched out on top of his desk, carefully examining him from head to foot. Relieved that his injuries were minor, he proceded to clean and wrap the small boy's stab wound.

"Itachi, I want you to train Naruto once a week. Spend the entire day with him. As for guarding him, I have others that take shifts watching him. You will need to guard him once a week, this time I don't want him to know you are watching him. You may have noticed in the forest that he has very sharp instincts. If he senses any hostility in the person that is following him, he will lose them. I once followed him only for him to disappear right in front of me. I was angry though and was going to reprimand him for pranking the council members. Of course they didn't know it was him." The Third chuckled at the memory as he stared down fondly at the boy.

"If that is all sir, I need to return home to train with Sasuke. I fear that Father expects more of him than he did of me when I was his age." "Yes, but tomorrow you will be spending the day with Naruto. If you want to train with Sasuke, then you have to bring Naruto. From the moment he wakes up until he falls asleep at night, you will be with him. You are dismissed." Itachi bowed before he quickly left.

The next day, he arrived at the Hokage's office at seven. He was surprised when he saw Naruto sitting in front of him, glaring daggers at the man. "Old man I don't need a babysitter. I can take care of myself. Or have you forgotten that I've learned several different styles of Taijutsu? And why is he here? He better not be my babysitter." Itachi could feel his jaw drop. He had entered the room silently, not even the slightest noise or shift in air. Nothing should have given away his presence.

"Naruto, you may know several styles but you have yet to master them. Itachi will be training you once a week. I want you to be able to protect yourself if you are unable to escape your attackers." "Old man, if I ran they would have followed me. And if I ditched them then I would have made it worse. I've done it before, only to have the same group beat me everyday for a week. And don't look shocked that you didn't know. You were gone that week for a meeting with some old fart in Stone."

Sarutobi could feel a headache coming on. He also knew better than to ask Naruto who his attackers were. The boy would never tell, saying that he refused to be like them. "You don't have a choice. You will spend the day with Itachi. Now, you are dismissed. Itachi, please take care of him." Itachi bowed and left the office, slightly amused when Naruto stuck his tongue out at the Third before darting out the door.

He had just closed the door when he heard a loud crash and the Hokage bellowing, "Naruto!" Itachi looked for the blonde boy, spotting him as he just turned the corner. Groaning, he gave chase. He was impressed at the speed that Naruto ran. He was gaining on him when the blonde suddenly disappeared from right in front of him. Now he knew what the Hokage meant.

Cursing, Itachi spent the next five hours searching for the boy. He finally found him in a ramen stall, about to eat his first bowl of ramen. He had barely taken one bite of the noodles before he spat them out and began to cough. Worried, Itachi ran over to the boy and began to pound him on the back. He looked up just in time to see a waitress trying to run from the shop. But before she could leave, the shop owner had caught her by the wrist, glaring at her. "You won't get away. You just tried to poison one of my customers."

Instead of panicking, the middle-aged woman sneered at him as she tried to yank her wrist from his grasp. "You have no proof that I tried to poison the brat. He could have just choked on his noodles. It would have been a blessing if he did." "You may not know this, but the ramen that I cook is impossible to poison. Any poison that is slipped into it makes the noodles taste awful, doesn't matter what type of poison." "That's impossible. I used a tasteless, odorless, colorless, fuckin' undetectable poison. There is no way that he knew it was poisoned." The woman slapped a hand over her mouth as she realized what she just said.

Itachi glared at her, quickly withdrawing a pair of handcuffs from a hidden pocket. He didn't work in the police force but he always carried a pair of handcuffs in case he ever had to arrest a civilian. He slapped them onto her before he could protest any further. She had turned to him looking indignant until her eyes fell onto his clan symbol. "I do not appreciate you trying to poison the child that I am suppose to train today." He glared at her, allowing his eyes to flicker red for an instant.

Itachi left the waitress in Ichiraku's hands. He scribbled a quick note of what he had witnessed, instructing the man to give it to whoever arrived to pick up the woman. Turning, Itachi growled as he once again found Naruto missing. Just how hard was it to keep track of a single small child? He was wearing neon orange for crying out loud. How could he not be able to find him?

Growling, Itachi once again spent several hours searching for his charge. After about three hours, he found the boy practicing his taijutsu in one of the training grounds. Few people came by the area since the training grounds were located right next to the Forest of Death. He sat and silently observed the boy, surprised at how smoothly he moved. Compared to most Academy students, his moves were flowing and graceful instead of choppy and awkward.

"You can come out. I know you're there. I'm surprised, your the first person to find me so fast besides the Oji-san. The old fart usually finds me in an hour since he knows all of my favorite spots. I ditched my last babysitter for a week. And he was supposed to be some top-notch jounin." Itachi didn't move, not believing that he had been detected. "Fine, be that way. Don't say I didn't warn you."

Naruto flung a kunai at him, embedding the blade right next to his cheek. A small trickle of blood began to slide down his left cheek. Itachi touched his cheek in shock. That brat did not just cut his face. Itachi pulled the kunai out of the tree and stalked foward. The blonde was definitely going to pay for daring to cut his face. He was just about to reach the boy when he attacked. Slightly caught by surprise, Itachi dropped the blade so he could parry the blow.

Itachi stayed on the defensive, studying Naruto's movements. He was no longer surprised by the boy. He had lost the boy twice that day because he had underestimated him, he wasn't about to make that mistake again. Slowly, he began to attack. Itachi held back, fighting him like he would Sasuke. He didn't lower his guard like he would with Sasuke. When he sparred with Sasuke, he would fight at a lower level, making both his attack and defense the same it would be for that level. Sasuke would only land a hit if he was able to spot the weaknesses in his fighting.

Sasuke had improved greatly through this method, so Itachi decided to do the same, fighting Naruto just a level above his current skills. After about two hours or straight fighting, Itachi could tell that Naruto was reaching his limits. He was about to end the fight when Naruto landed a vicious blow that winded him. It was the first clean hit that he landed. Grinning, Naruto held up a victory sign before falling foward. Itachi caught him before he could hit the ground. He could deal with the brat. Picking him up, Itachi carried him home, looking foward to the next day he would spend with him.

For the next year, he trained with Naruto. Sadly, he spent most mornings looking for the brat and if he found him before lunch, he would train him in weapons. After eating ramen for lunch, Itachi would once again search for the blonde for an hour or so. When he found him, they would spar for an hour or two. When Itachi was satisfied that Naruto would be able to put up a fight, he began to teach him the basics of different styles. There had been another four attempted posionings on the boy, and five assasinations attempts. This was while Itachi was with him.

The days that Itachi watched the blonde from afar, he had witnessed another fifteen attempted posionings and had stopped at least eleven assasination attempts. He started to wonder how the boy had managed to survive. He had a feeling that the Hokage had a part in his survival. After about ten weeks, Naruto finally began to call him by his name, well part of his name. It was during a spar that he had first called him 'Tachi. From then on, he called Naruto, Naru-chan. At first this angered the boy, but he could tell it was an act. Naruto was so starved for affection that even the smallest bit of kindness shown to him would put him on cloud nine.

"'Tachi, are you going to daydream all day or are you going to give me your report? I have to be back to the village in an hour if I'm going to meet my team tomorrow morning. And before you ask, I'm a Genin. Well, technically I'm an Anbu captain, but I'm posing as a Genin for an S-class mission. Now, can we hurry? We don't want to be seen together since your suppose to be coming after me to get the fuzz-ball." Itachi had been snapped out of his memories by Naruto's drastic statement.

It was this first meeting that Itachi had learned of Naruto's secret identity. Itachi was snapped out of his memories when Naruto shifted in his arms. "Itachi, I think you should go see Kakashi and Iruka. You'll need to discuss several things I'm sure. I'll take Naruto and hold him. That should keep his nightmares away. We need you and Kakashi to map out some of the castle for us. It will take us at least a week to explore and memorize the lay out of the castle by ourselves. Some sort of communication system needs to be set up. Sakura probably has an idea for passing along information, like a spelled scroll or something. You better go though if you want to get any sleep tonight."

Itachi nodded and carefully handed Naruto to Gaara. "You guys had better go to bed. Gaara, you need to be the first person he sees when he wakes up. And Sasuke, I'll talk to you tomorrow. I'm sure you have a lot of questions. Good night, and have Shino keep the bed bugs from biting." Gaara snorted, the closest he would come to actually laughing out loud. Haku giggled slightly, laughing a little harder when he saw Sasuke's amused and horrified face. Itachi left the room laughing one of those creepy laughs. He had an evil glint in his eye. This was going to be one crazy year.

A/N: I hope you enjoyed. And if I get a lot of suggestions for costume ideas, I'll post a list in a chapter this weekend for all readers to vote on. You have to leave your vote in a review if you want it to count. Or e-mail me directly. I think my e-mail adress is posted. Anyway, I hoped you enjoyed the chapter and I'll work hard to have a chapter ready to update tomorrow. I think I'll try updating chapters in the morning, but I'll have to see if I can get up early enough. But I will try to update at least one chapter every day, as long as I don't get writer's block. But if I do get writer's block, I'll tell you. You can expect a huge amount of chapters though, because I usaully write a ton when I finally get over it. You don't have to worry about me dropping this story, I intend to finish it, even if I end up short-circuiting my brain. Thanks again for all of the reviews. Here's a teaser about the next chapter. Kakashi arrives early. The world is coming to an end. Much screaming and laughing will be involved. (Evil laughter.) Hopefully I'll have the chapter up tomorrow afternoon or night. And happy b-day to my annoying older brother. He knows who he is. And if it is also your birthday today, Happy B-Day. (I think I'm done being random, check my story tomorrow around nine p.m. I hope to have the next chapter up by then.) Kuu kuu kuu kuu. (Okay, now I'm done being random.) XD