Chapter Two: Strangers Like Me

Naruto opened his eyes groggily, his hand reaching to rub at his arm, which felt for some unfathomable reason like it had been pricked a dozen times with senbon, and rolled over, curling into a ball to continue sleeping.

In the brief half-second his eyes had been open he'd glimpsed a set of silver bars, and so assumed he was safe back home, bundled into his cage.

But he was cold. And the concrete below him was hard and bare. Where was his nice warm hay? His Handlers wouldn't have let him fall asleep outside… and anyway, he could sense that he was indoors.

And now he listened, where was the ever-present buzz of chakra flowing through the cage bars? And where were the scents of the others? If they had been taken out, he wouldn't hear them breathing, but he should still be able to smell their lingering scent.

His mind was gradually becoming clearer the more he thought – not something that happened often. How had he gotten back in the first place? He'd been out alone, with no Handlers to drag his unconscious ass back home if he screwed up. He'd been chasing the thief… the man had been running from him… Naruto's bloodlust had spiked when he'd heard his terrified scream, and he'd been unable to resist slashing at the man a little more violently than was necessary in his attempt to steal his backpack… He'd gotten Master's scrolls back – he could smell them inside the backpack… The backpack!

A jolt ran through him, but he was (unfathomably) still half-asleep. Even so, he forced himself upright and looked around, going still and shrinking down into himself as he realised that this was in no way, shape or form his cage.

It was a bare square of bars, set in the centre of a stone room. Outside, there was a single plastic chair, and nothing else. Naruto had to fight down a moment of panic, and cast his eyes around, biting his lip when he realised the backpack (and Master's scrolls) were gone. He focused his mind, trying to think.

He'd had the backpack. Then, there was a sharp pain in his chest, right near his heart, and he'd looked down to find a senbon sticking out of his shirt. He'd yanked it out and suddenly began to feel really dizzy… and then, next thing he knew, he was here.

A sudden suspicion struck him and Naruto looked down at his itchy-sore right arm. A half-dozen red puncture wounds dotted his limb, obviously from the same sort of weapon. Most of them were almost healed, but there was one that looked fresh: clearly it had been made less than half an hour ago.

His suspicions were confirmed as he dipped his head and licked the most recent wound, tasting traces of bitterness as he did so.

He'd been drugged. But by who, and for what purpose?

He jerked his head up as his sharp ears caught the sound of voices outside the door, murmuring to each other. They were unfamiliar to him, and he felt his heart begin to pound with just a touch of fear as he tuned into the conversation taking place just outside the shut wooden door.

"…is waking up," a female voice said.

"He… given three times… recommended dose… tranquiliser," a male voice responded. Naruto could only hear bits and pieces of their sentences, but he managed to deduce that they were talking about him.

"…going to do with him?"

"We're… talk… see if he's…"

"Do… think it's really…"

"I… know. We'll… see."

Naruto jumped violently as the door crashed open and a male and female human entered the room. He instantly back up, edging as close as he dared to the back of the cage without actually touching the bars.

The woman, a busty, grinning creature smelling faintly of snakes and soap leaned close, peering through the bars at the prisoner.

"He's a cutie, isn't he?" she smirked, blowing purple bangs off her face.

"Anko, leave him be. You're not allowed to flirt with the kid," the male sighed. The woman pouted, but he ignored her as he crouched, getting on the same level as the cowering Naruto and speaking quietly.

"Hey. It's okay, don't be frightened. I'm sorry – we didn't expect you to wake up so soon. Someone is fetching you something to eat now. Do you know where you are?"

Naruto shook his head, eyes darting between the man and the floor so as not to offend the human.

"You're in Konoha. I'm Morino Ibiki, and you've been put in one of our interrogation rooms for the time being. Sorry about this, but you know… can't be too careful."

Naruto frowned a little. He wasn't sure what exactly the strange man was apologising about, and thought maybe it could be the tranquiliser. Then again, who knew? Humans were weird.

"What's your name?" the man was saying. Naruto tilted his head and looked him straight in the eye for the first time, and Ibiki found himself pinned with the red-ringed blue gaze.

"…Naruto," the child said eventually, breaking eye contact. Ibiki caught himself before he could sigh in relief, then froze as the name registered.

"Naru-" he choked, shocked despite the suspicion he'd already had. The ANBU he'd sent to fetch food chose that moment to arrive, and Ibiki latched onto the distraction to give his brain time to adjust. "Here," he said, placing a bowl of hot stew and a piece of buttered bread on the floor inside the cage by reaching through the bars. It wasn't the best meal, but it would do.

He backed away, and Naruto cautiously moved forwards, but frowned and didn't so much as touch the food when he saw what it was. He once again tipped up his head to look Ibiki dead in the eyes.

"What do I do with this?" he asked flatly. Ibiki raised an eyebrow.

"It's food," he pointed out. Naruto sighed.

"Yes, I know. It's human food. So what do you want me to do with it?" The question was delivered in a slightly irritated tone.

Ibiki felt his heart freeze for a moment. Surely the kid didn't eat like a demon… right?

"What do you mean, 'human food'?" he asked. "What do you usually eat? Isn't it something like this?"

Naruto shook his head. He was getting annoyed. Why was this human taunting him? It made no sense.

"It's human food, meaning it is food for humans," he said sulkily, knowing that it wasn't worth his hide to growl. "I'm not allowed to – I mean, I don't eat human food. I'm a jinchuuriki."

Ibiki hesitated. That was interesting… but he would much prefer to alert the Hokage to the fact that it seemed Uzumaki Naruto was back than discuss his eating habits… right now.

"Well, this is all we have. So you can eat it if you want. Um, I need to leave now, but someone will be back to speak with you shortly."

Naruto shrugged, sitting on the floor and dipping his fingers into the stew curiously, totally ignoring the chopsticks provided, the man already dismissed in his mind as he focused solely on the interesting food.

Ibiki sighed heavily as he left the room. Why did these things always happen on his shift?

Sarutobi chewed his lower lip in a rare display of anxiousness as he peered through the one-way mirror that showed the cell the captive was being kept in. He certainly looked the part – the similarities were striking, and it made Sarutobi's heart ache with a sort of grieving hope.

"Are you sure?" he asked in a low voice, not taking his eyes off the boy who was sitting in the centre of the cage that was built into the cell, happily making a game of his empty stew bowl and bread plate and making not even the slightest attempt to examine his prison, much less escape.

"Yessir," Ibiki, standing beside him, said instantly. "The demonic chakra… and he said his name… and the way he looks… there's no doubt about it. It's him."

"We'll have to do a DNA test, to convince the council," Sarutobi mused, eyes misting over as he watched the boy – Naruto – attempting to balance the plate on its rim and laughing when it fell over with a resounding clatter.

"What will you do with him?" Ibiki asked. The old man sighed.

"I don't know," he confessed. "I never thought I'd see him again. I was sure he was dead."

"We all were," Ibiki put in, not liking the self-blame inflections in his Hokage's voice.

"When he disappeared…" Sarutobi shook his head. "There is no way he survived on his own. He was just a baby. Someone must have raised him. The question is, who? And why? And why has he returned home now?"

"Sir, I think you should see something," Ibiki said, rummaging through a sheaf of papers until he found a photograph that had been taken of the child when he was brought in earlier. "I don't believe he was raised, per se. Look here." With his finger, he tapped the picture before handing it over to the suddenly still Hokage.

"A collar?" the Sandaime murmured, his voice not betraying the horror he felt. Ibiki nodded.

"Also, when I offered him food, he didn't even entertain the idea of eating it because, I quote, 'it's human food'. When questioned, he told me that he was a jinchuuriki and didn't eat human food – I'm sure he was going to say he wasn't allowed to before he cut himself off."

Sarutobi closed his eyes, a wave of sorrow sweeping over his old heart. Minato… what have they done to your son?

"What was he doing when he was captured?" he asked out loud. "The chuunin who reported told me he had been chasing an as of yet unidentified shinobi."

"They told me the same," Ibiki reported. "Apparently, he'd stolen this when they managed to sedate him." He lifted a shredded backpack from a nearby wooden table and held it out to the Hokage. Sarutobi swept his eyes over it and sighed.

"Alright. I'll speak to him. I want you to have a team go over that pack, in case he was after it and not the shinobi. And tell Anko that she's not allowed near him – I think he's been through enough already without having to suffer her."

"Hai, Hokage-sama," Ibiki said, smiling slightly. Sarutobi took a deep breath and opened the door leading into the cell.

The child in the cage looked up and the Sandaime was suddenly struck by the colour of bright blue eyes encircled by red, and his gut clenched. Kyuubi… That sort of change could only be caused by the demon. Even now, Sarutobi could sense traces of that dreadful chakra he hated and feared so much, tainting the boy's familiar natural chakra that was so much like his father's.

In an instant, any lingering doubts Sarutobi had disappeared. This could only be the child he had lost so long ago.

"Naruto?" he said quietly, coming closer and sitting in the plastic chair just outside the cage.

Naruto watched him carefully, but his eyes had dropped so that he was staring at the old man's chest rather than looking him directly in the eye. The plate he'd managed to balance wobbled and fell with a resounding clatter. He didn't move. Sarutobi decided to move on.

"My name is Sarutobi. I am the Sandaime Hokage. Do you know what that means?" Naruto shook his head wordlessly, now looking at his knees. "It means I am the leader of this village, Konohagure. I… don't suppose you remember me?"

Again, Naruto shook his head, not responding or even moving in any other way. Sarutobi sighed.

"I suppose not. You were very young last time you saw me, after all. Just a baby, really."

A long pause, before Naruto finally said something. He spoke in a dull, almost sulky and definitely resigned voice as he said, "I don't understand."

"What don't you understand?" Sarutobi prompted. Naruto shrugged one shoulder.

"Why am I here? Where is Master? What do you want with me?"

Sarutobi leant forwards. "Well, we don't know," he said, watching Naruto carefully. "Who is this… master? Where does he live?" Naruto frowned at the floor.

"Don't you know?" he asked. Sarutobi was surprised.

"…Should I?" he asked cautiously. He blanched at the next, casually spoken words.

"Well, didn't you sell me to him? I take it you are my first Master, if you are the leader of the Leaf Village."

"Sell you?" the Sandaime repeated incredulously, "Why would I…?" Naruto shrugged.

"My Handlers told me that I was sold to Master when I was nearly two, by a man from the place I was bred," he replied lightly, as if it was no big deal. Then again, Sarutobi reminded himself, it probably wasn't to the blonde.

"Bred? Naruto, what are you talking about? You weren't bred, you were… Naruto, you are a child of Konoha, not some object to be sold!" Sarutobi was horrified. Had Minato's son been raised as a slave this whole time?

Naruto tipped his head up and met his gaze for a moment, eyes alight with amusement. "You don't know much, do you, old man? I think you're confused. I am not one of you – not a human. I am a jinchuuriki. An animal. I'm a… a pet. Master's pet."

As the words delivered in the most matter-of-fact tone imaginable washed over him, the Hokage's horror increased exponentially. What… what the hell has happened to this child? he shouted in his mind, frozen in his seat. The boy might have been saying his hair was blonde from his tone.

Naruto watched the elderly human with concern. I hope he's not having a heart attack or something, he mused. I don't want him to die on me. That'd be a pain.

Eventually, the stranger un-stuck himself and leant forwards. "Naruto…" The blonde could clearly hear the pain in his voice. "You… you really believe… that you are nothing more than an… an animal?"

Naruto sighed. This was going in ever-increasingly-irritating circles. "Is this some kind of a test, sir?" he asked dryly. "I know my place. What do you want with me? Did I stray into a forbidden zone? Or were you just rounding up a stray? I assure you, I was out with my Master's full knowledge and permission. I was searching for something that belonged to him."

"Several of my shinobi saw you attack another man," Sarutobi managed to drag his mind back on track. Naruto nodded.

"Yes, I did. He was a thief, and I attacked him to relieve him of the stolen goods. I was then to return them to Master."

"Who is your… your master?" the Sandaime almost choked on the word. Naruto hesitated, then reached up to touch the metal band circling his neck.

"ID's on my collar," he said.

Sarutobi hesitated, then made a careful gesture with his hand, indicating for the child to come forwards. Naruto instantly obeyed, crawling towards the bars of the cage. Sarutobi noted he stopped well clear of them: at least ten inches away: and turned so that he was sitting with his back to the old man.

The Hokage leant forwards. Screwed to the collar, sitting neatly on the back of Naruto's neck, was a small rectangular plate on which words were carefully engraved. Sarutobi frowned and read them quickly.

Property of Nakamura Makoto

Demon: Nine Tailed Fox, Fire Element

Sealed day of birth, 10 Oct 1074

Gender: Male

Origin: Konoha

Name: Naruto

Sarutobi sat back in his chair, horror and a broad measure of guilt rising up. Here was the precious son of his successor and friend, wearing a collar and nametag like an animal, proclaiming him the property of another man. And worse, he didn't seem to mind.

For a moment, he closed his eyes and let the emotions rage through him. Images swam before him, memories from the past.

…Minato, grinning, gesturing him into his office to burst forth with the news that he was going to be a father…

…Jiraiya, jumping into his house, knocking over his painting canvas as he announced that Minato was going name his son after a character from his book…

…The Kyuubi ravaging the village, Minato's teary but set face as he lifted his newborn son – Naruto – from his crib and strode out to meet it…

…Kushina, holding the child three days later as she died from complications…

…The horrible day the alarm went out that the Kyuubi child had been stolen, sending out squad after squad of ANBU to find him, who all came up negative…

…The funeral without a body, performed at Sarutobi's insistence, attended only by his family despite the fact that the whole village was invited, Hatake Kakashi turning up as everyone was leaving to pause at the headstone and then disappear…

"…Maybe it's a stroke?" A voice cut through the swirling memories and Sarutobi opened his eyes to see Naruto kneeling, still a respectful distance from the bars of the cage, waving his hand to try and get his attention and talking steadily, seemingly to himself. "Or it could be, like, a seizure, or something. Come on, old man, don't be dead. That could be hard to explain. Don't be dead, don't be dead. Please?"

"I'm not dead, Naruto," the Hokage was quick to assure him, "But I think we have a problem."

The blonde head tipped and wide eyes looked at him questioningly before lowering passively. Sarutobi squashed the pained feeling at seeing such obvious submission and his mind quickly formulated the best strategy for keeping this child in Konoha, where he belonged. The Hokage had no intention of ever returning him to this 'Master Makoto'.

"You see, you were not sold as an infant, you were stolen," Sarutobi said coolly. "By a bounty hunter, and then, presumably sold on the black market. We have been searching for you for thirteen years. As such, you are legally ours."

Naruto looked confused, his brow furrowed as he tried to understand.

"What?" he whined, shaking his head, "That's crazy! Why can't Master be Master and that's that? This is complicated! Humans are weird! I always thought that Master's my master… I have to go back to him! I have to! I have to get the scrolls and bring them back! I have to!"

Sarutobi held up his hands placatingly. "It will take us some time to sort this mess out," he said calmly. "I tell you what: why don't we compromise. For now, you will stay here without complaint. Once a week, we will reward your compliance with one of the twelve scrolls you need. Once you have them all, we will escort you home."

Naruto hesitated. "Master said I had to be back in a month…" he began uncertainly. Sarutobi twitched his shoulders.

"Well, we will see. In four weeks' time, I will review the situation. Are we agreed?"

Naruto paused briefly, considering, before nodded. "Very well. I will serve you in return for Master's possessions."

"Good." Sarutobi stood up. "I will send someone to bring you to your new home shortly. I think I will put you with one of my jounin, and he can look after you for the duration of your stay."

"Um… sir?" Naruto said cautiously, eyes down, "Will this person… be my Handler? Trainer? Um, tamer? Whatever word you use here?"

Sarutobi nodded – that was obviously the only guardian-like role this deprived boy understood. "Yes, child. I will see you soon. Until then."

Highly disconcerted by the way Naruto instantly bowed low at the obvious dismissal, the old man left the room, meeting eyes with a horrified Ibiki.

"Find me Hatake Kakashi," he said flatly.

At that exact moment, Hatake Kakashi was wondering what in nine levels of hell was he thinking when he accepted this genin – now chuunin – team. His left hand was planted on the chest of a straining Toshi, his right firmly grasping Sasuke's collar. Neither boy was paying a single iota of attention to their teacher as Sasuke snarled insults and Toshi tried to get near enough to clock the Uchiha.

Sakura, the third (and most controllable) member of the team, was sitting on the grass nearby, watching the three-way struggle with resigned boredom.

"It would appear your 'split us up and cool us off' tactic didn't work, Sensei," she commented. Kakashi shot her a look and turned his attention back to the warring boys.

"That – is – ENOUGH!" he bellowed the last word, raising his voice for the first time in… a very long time. Both boys found themselves falling backwards as they were each shoved hard in the chest, and landed on their respective rears in time to see Kakashi look extremely pissed off.

"For the love of all things holy!" Kakashi raged. "You two are pathetic! You're supposed to be shinobi! Chuunin, for Pete's sake! And here you are brawling like school children! Sasuke, I guarantee your brother never wasted energy and time insulting his teammates like that, regardless of whether they deserved it, and if you want to catch him up and kill him, I suggest you take a leaf out of his book! Toshi, all I can say is your father would be ashamed of you."

Both boys looked shocked at this furiously delivered lecture, and the expression slowly faded to be replaced with varying levels of shame.

"But he started-" Toshi began to protest.

"Finish that sentence, Toshi, and I'll haul your ass right back to preschool," Kakashi threatened. "Gah! You three are driving me insane! I have no idea how you managed to pass my bell test in the first place. Believe it or not, you three once had potential to work together, but things seem to have been degrading these last few months. Does someone want to tell me what happened, hmm?"

The jounin looked from one boy to the other, noting the way both of them had averted their gaze and were staring mutinously at the grass of the training field. Silence stretched, and finally Kakashi gave in. Sighing heavily, he sank down to sit on the grass, joining his students.

"Fine. Toshi, Sasuke, you two are paired up today. If you won't get along, I'll make you work together until you find a way to get along. Sakura, you're dismissed."

Sakura nodded and stood, gathering her things and leaving, deciding to head to the hospital and work an extra shift or two before some training. Left behind, the three male members of team seven spent a few moments glaring at each other before Kakashi's eye arched in a smile and he clapped his hands.

"Right," he said brightly, "Let's get to work!"

Half an hour later, a chuunin dropped into the training field from a nearby tree. "Kakashi-sempai," he said.

"Kinda busy," Kakashi said, blocking a clumsy blow from Sasuke and tripping Toshi, sending both teens tumbling to the ground and struggling to stand back up, a task made significantly harder by the fact that their left arms and right legs were bound together securely, leaving them back-to-back and peeved.

"It's important. Hokage-sama needs to see you now," the chuunin stressed. Kakashi sighed and fell out of his fighting stance.

"Very well. We'll pick this up tomorrow, then. In the mean time, I suggest you two spend some time together. Talk. Bond. Work out whatever problem it is that has you both acting like twelve year old girls PMS'ing. Ja ne!"

And he disappeared in a twist of smoke. The chuunin hesitated, watching his cursing fellow chuunin for a moment, before offering a lame, "Uh, see you," and ran.

After a moment, both boys stopped struggling, and there was silence for a good three minutes.

"Damn, I hate Sensei," Toshi grumbled. Sasuke grunted in agreement.

Kakashi sat down hard. Sarutobi watched him with concern as the three inches of visible skin of his face turned white as rice paper, and his grey eye lost its perpetually bored look.

"H… how?" he said eventually. "How can he still be alive?"

Sarutobi sighed. He had just broken the news that Uzumaki Naruto had returned, and he was not looking forward to explaining the nature of his upbringing.

"It seems… the bounty hunter we found out had taken him, you remember?" Kakashi growled: of course he remembered. "Well, it turns out that instead of killing him, this man sold him. Naruto has been serving a man named Nakamura Makoto since then."

There was a pause.

"He was a slave?!" Kakashi hissed, and Sarutobi sighed at the killer intent rolling off him. Just wait until he knew the whole story…

"Not quite," he said, and began to explain rapidly, filling the jounin in on everything the Hokage had learnt. When he was done, there was silence in the Hokage's office.

"So… he honestly thinks… he's an… animal?" Kakashi was obviously having a hard time with the thought. Sarutobi nodded.

"Yes. That is part of the reason I'm giving him to you to guard. I know you'll look after him, and do your best to show him the truth, and you won't sell him out. Also, you won't take advantage of his current mentality, and you possess the means and skill to protect him from those who would."

Kakashi shook his head, running a gloved hand over his head. "I should have figured you wanted to hook me up with yet another emotionally screwed child. Do you know how infuriating my current team is? And that's without adding a new, highly confused one into the mix."

"I've heard a rumour or two," Sarutobi said lightly. "I understand if you don't wish to do this, Kakashi. You're busy. You have a lot on your plate at the moment. You don't have time for Minato's son, especially now that he needs so much care and attention." The Hokage was amused to watch Kakashi wilting before his very eyes, and added the final, deciding sentence. "I suppose I can hand him to an ANBU… they should have sufficient skill… Danzou was interested in him even before this happened, when he was a baby – I could ask him, I suppose…"

"I'll do it, where is he?" Kakashi said instantly. Sarutobi chuckled.

"Go get him," he said to one of the hidden ANBU in the room. The ANBU left, invisibly, and the Hokage focused again on the jounin. "He'll be taken to your apartment," he said. "I don't want to parade him through town bringing him here, and then again to get to your home. This way, ANBU can move him discretely. You will be allowed an open account to purchase anything you need for him. Do not hesitate to spend as much as you need on anything – including food, clothing, bedding, toys and anything else you think of. You will be allowed a wage for acting as caregiver and board for his room." Best to make this official, with official pay. "Look after him, Kakashi."

Kakashi nodded and bowed slightly. "Yes, sir." He paused for a beat, and then said, "I have that spare room in my apartment – it can be transformed into a bedroom."

Sarutobi nodded. "You go back to your chuunin," he ordered. "I will have a basic room set up, and Naruto delivered to your apartment. You can go from there. Give us a few hours to get sorted. Oh, and do untie your boys sooner or later."

Kakashi had stood and bowed slightly, and was already halfway out the door. He flicked his fingers over his shoulder and called, "Won't be sooner: might be later," and vanished.

Three hours later, Kakashi pushed the door to his apartment open with a good measure of uncertainty. His heart was thumping painfully despite his attempts to calm it. This was Sensei's son… it was like getting a little bit of Sensei back.

An ANBU was standing guard outside the door of the spare room, and he snapped to attention as Kakashi appeared in the hallway. In spite of everything, Kakashi smirked. He still had it…

"Report," he ordered quietly, coming level with the man in the white porcelain mask.

"The child has been quiet," came a voice form behind the beaver pattern. "He has been settled for a little more than half an hour. "Sir, you may be surprised to see him, if you have not seen him before now. Also… he has been bound."

"Why?" Kakashi asked sharply. "Was he struggling? Trying to run?" The ANBU shook his head.

"No, sir. It's just, he was so confused, bordering on distressed, we thought he needed something… familiar. He was asking for… you'll understand when you talk to him."

Kakashi seriously considered punching the guy, but decided he should speak to the kid first. "You and your teammates can go," he said dismissively. "I've got it from here."

The ANBU nodded and hightailed it away, not really wanting to stay near the creepy child or scary ex-ANBU captain a second longer than absolutely necessary.

Once he was sure he was alone, Kakashi took a deep breath, leaning against the door to steady himself. He could sense the chakra in the room, a frightening trace of Kyuubi combated by chakra that was a comfortingly close match to Sensei's.

Taking a moment to gather his courage, Kakashi steeled himself and pushed open the door.

The place had been dusted, and all the old stacks of newspaper and cardboard storage boxes had vanished, probably stacked neatly in the closet. A futon was by the wall opposite, folded for the day.

Someone blonde was sitting on the hardwood floor, directly in a beam of sunlight streaming in from the window, playing some game with a leaf and an empty cup. Kakashi felt a surge of anger when he saw a dog leash, of all things, clipped to the metal collar around the boy's throat and threaded through the radiator, keeping him in place.

Then, the blonde looked up, meeting Kakashi's gaze, and the jounin took a step back. Despite the red in his blue eyes, despite the whisker marks on his cheeks, he looked so much – so much like – like –

And then it was him, it was Sensei sitting there calmly; abused, submissive, collared like an animal.

With two quick strides, he'd crossed the room and was reaching for that leash, unclipping it with hands that were certainly not shaking, letting it fall against the radiator with a clank. It took a glance to see that he couldn't remove the collar easily: it seemed to be some sort of chakra-sensitive alloy, and would only respond to a predetermined person's chakra.

It took a surprising amount of effort to step away again, instead of fruitlessly struggling to get the damnable metal ring off off off.

The child – teenager, fifteen, not really a child anymore – looked up at him cautiously, obviously very insecure. Kakashi stared at him for a long moment, before bits and pieces of the Sandaime's speech came back to him.

"You'll have to treat him as something below you, Kakashi – at least at first. He's not used to being treated as a human. You need to be his authority, to begin with, and we can work from there."

Okay… so… where did that leave him? He had to speak to this kid like he wasn't a kid. Yeah. Okay.

"My name is Hatake Kakashi." That was a good place to start, right? A name is always a good starting point. "I've been assigned to look after you."

Naruto glanced up, searching his mostly-hidden face very briefly before dropping his gaze to the ground.

"You… are my Handler, while I'm here?" he asked hesitantly. Kakashi winced.

"Y-yes." He almost choked on the word. Sensei, I'm sorry…

The sick feeling of guilt grew at the relief on Naruto's face – evidently it was a weight off the blonde's mind now that he knew who he answered to. Kakashi found himself watching Naruto uncomfortably, unsure what to do next.

For Naruto, sitting still was becoming a problem. He knew he had to stay still and keep his eyes down until his Handler gave an order or left, but he had a lot of energy, and he'd been still and quiet for hours. He began to fidget slightly, occasionally shifting his weight or twisting his hands on his lap.

Kakashi watched this, easily figuring out what was going through the boy's mind. Suddenly, he wanted Them off Sensei's son: Their dirt, Their clothes, Their taint, all of it had to be gone.

"Naruto," he said, noting the way the blonde stiffened at the name, "Come with me. I want you to have a bath, and I'm going to find you some new clothes to wear."

Naruto was frowning, as if he didn't quite understand, but he nodded and stood up obediently. "Yessir."

Kakashi winced again. "Don't… don't call me sir, Naruto. Just call me Kakashi."

Naruto's eyes flashed up to meet his for a split second, and Kakashi read the horrible confusion present there, before he looked down at his feet again and said cautiously, "Yes… Kakashi-sir."

Kakashi sighed.

"Come with me," he said, abandoning the fight for now. He hated the way Naruto fell in step behind him, exactly three paces back, and led him quickly to the bathroom, opening the door and gesturing him inside.

Naruto entered carefully, looking around in wonder.

"What is this place?" he asked, peering into a glass cubicle with funny metal bits n the wall and a lingering smell of soap and water.

"Haven't you ever seen a bathroom before?" Kakashi-sir sounded strained, but Naruto was too busy exploring this new place to really pay much notice. He shook his head as he examined a weird object that looked like a human seat, but had more water flowing through it.

"I'm not allowed inside. None of Master's pets are," he said matter-of-factly. "Yah!"

He jumped about a foot in the air and fell over, backing away until he banged into Kakashi-sir's legs, and quickly scooted around to hide behind them, before pointing at the box-thing fixed to the wall above what he thought was a sink, though he'd never seen one so small before.

"There's a person in there!" he hollered.

Kakashi was staring at the blonde, horror growing steadily worse. What kind of life had this kid had?!

"It's not a person," he found himself saying, looking down and behind at Naruto's spooked eyes. Naruto frowned.

"I saw him!" he wailed. "There's someone there!"

"Get up, come look," Kakashi ordered softly, moving to the mirror set in the doors of his medicine cabinet. Naruto crept along behind him, more curious than frightened now. Kakashi stood and looked at his reflection, seeing in the mirror how Naruto looked, squeaked and ducked away, before peering cautiously around his shoulder again.

"This is a mirror," Kakashi said, still in that soft, almost autopilot voice. "It shows you your reflection. This is not another person, it's you and me. See: that is me," he pointed at his own reflection, seeing it point back, "And that is you. That's what you look like."

"What I… look like?" Naruto echoed, leaning around Kakashi to get a better view. "That's… me? My reflection? Like in puddles?"

"Like in puddles," Kakashi agreed. "You – you've never been in a bathroom? How do you bathe?"

Naruto shrugged. "My Handlers hose us down from time to time," he offered, "And once a season we swim through dip. It's gross."

Kakashi closed his eye briefly at the image, then sighed and resigned himself to an uphill battle. Watching Naruto begin to play with his reflection, growing steadily more delighted, Kakashi resolved to give him a few moments before attempting the next hurdle: a shower.