A/N: Well, here we go again with yet another new story because it is a necessary process in the writing of my other stories. I can't help it, I read a story and an idea will come to me and I can't focus on my other stories until I write it down and get it out my head, so forgive me if you don't like it. Anyways, I noticed that Naruto is read as Naruto U. so in a sense, this is a perfectly logic thing. Also, because I still haven't found a way to 'properly' translate jutsu, I'm still writing them in English, sorry. :(
-New Arrangements-
Naruto breathed evenly as he looked down on his home village of Konoha. In the events to were about to occur, Naruto was glad that, not by a bad hand dealt by destiny, or something blown out of proportion, but by his own choices and desires, the events that would transpire tonight were still in his control. It caused a tranquil feeling in Naruto, to know that even now when he could very well die, he was in control of his own fate.
Sighing, he stood to his feet as he checked himself over; he recalled the memories associated with each thing.
-(Flashback)-
Naruto walked down the streets with his mother at his side. She had asked to buy him something before he left, and he remembered something that he saw when he went with Itachi one time to become familiar with the villages store, particularly the ones that sold ninja supplies.
As he opened the door, he saw the sign hanging over the top, 'The Shinigami's Blade'.
Hearing the door open, a young girl came to the front, "Hello, my name is Tenten, how may I help you." The now named Tenten asked as she had to climb onto a stool to look over the counter.
"Hehe, you can't be any older than me, how can you work here?" Naruto asked, a small giggle escaping his lips before he composed himself.
"My dad owns this place, so what can I do for you?" Tenten repeated before Naruto walked off and returned with two blades, one was a katana with a black scabbard with a swirling red designing going down the entire length of it, the other a short tanto with a dark grey design that looked like puzzle pieces.
Setting the pair on the counter, Mikoto took out the money to pay only for Tenten to shout into the back.
"Hey Tou-san, someone wants to buy that blade!" Tenten shouted before a tall, grumbling man with wide-set shoulders and beefy hands appeared in the doorway to the back. Walking up to the counter, he looked at the two blades Naruto had picked out.
"Hey, brat, what do you plan to do with these blades?" The man asked before motioning for Tenten to go get something from the back.
"Well, sir, this one," Naruto pointed at the tanto, "is for my aniki and the other is for me, I'm taking a trip with a friend and well, I have a feeling that I'll need to protect her." Naruto said with a look of pure determination in his eyes as he met the older man's gaze.
"Oh, well, let me say this if you intend to buy this katana." The man said as Tenten returned, placing a book on Kenjutsu on the counter top.
"Its name is Chiyoru, and it likes to stick to that rule, it is a sentient blade, and it had one rule, if you remove it from its sheath, then blood will have to be spilt." The man said as he handed Naruto the katana, which he handed Mikoto to receive the other blade.
"This one's name is Fukuzatsuna Pazuru, and it likes a brilliant mind to wield it, is your aniki smart?" The man said and as Naruto nodded, he handed Naruto the next blade.
"Arigato" Naruto said as he and his mother turned to leave, but before they did, Naruto swapped blades and removed Chiyoru from its sheath before dragging the blade across his palm causing the two adults to gasp and Tenten to scrunch her face up at the blood. "There you go, little guy, do you like the taste of my blood?" Naruto asked and he smiled as he felt his sword vibrate. "Well, then, I think we're going to work together well." Naruto said he slid the sword back into his sheath and opened the door for Mikoto before the man shouted at him.
"Hey, kid, did you just give some of your blood to your sword?" The man asked and receiving a nod from Naruto, he reached down under the counter and pulled out another blade. "That blade has a sister, Mayonaka no Hakucho, I don't really want to separate the two so I'll give her to you free of charge since I can tell you won't mistreat the blades. Now, this one feeds off lunar energy, which is to say, she is strongest when wielded by a female or during the night on a larger moon." The man explained before he tossed the blade towards Naruto who simply reached out and caught before bowing once more and leaving.
-(Flashback End)-
At his side hung his new blade, the blade blood red in the middle with the outer edges being a darker shade with a black guard and a handle that was wrapped with a red ribbon, tightly bound.
He still hadn't removed Mayonaka no Hakucho from her sheath, intending to give as a gift to his hopefully soon to be roommate. The blade was currently sealed in a scroll in Naruto's pocket, hidden beneath the large cloak that Itachi had given him to conceal his identity. He pulled the hood up over his head as he remembered Itachi's explanation of Genjutsu, a skill that the Uchiha's were known for with their Sharingan. Itachi had told that that he had cast a Genjutsu over the cloak to help conceal Naruto's identity.
Chuckling as he watched over the village, he saw what he was looking for, the gathering mob and about a half-mile away was Naruko minding her own business. Naruto had saw the glares aimed her way, and heard the whispered insults of demon-child, murderer, and fox-whore, he didn't know what the last one was, but he could tell from the tone of voice that it was an insult. From these things, he could tell that Naruko had a secret that she wasn't allowed to know about, considering the flinches from the glares and names.
Also from these observations, he could tell that the civilians were liable to gang up on Naruko. He had adapted his plan to fit these observations, and now that he was cleared, he was going to finish the job. Closing his lips, he remembered how the Hokage had reacted and the info Naruto had managed to glean from the conversation.
-(Flashback)-
"What was that?" The Hokage asked Naruto as he stood in front of the older man.
"I want you to help me fake my death." Naruto said as he bowed respectfully, "Hokage-sama?" He finished while bowed before rising to see the older man's face with confusion written all over it.
"May I ask why, Naruto-kun?" The Hokage asked using a grandfatherly tone like he was prepared to double-check Naruto's thinking process.
"I aspire to be the Hokage one day, for my family because no Uchiha has done so yet, despite being one of essentially 3 clans to found this village." Naruto answered and seeing the Hokage holding up three fingers, elaborated, "Well, two clans, the Senju and the Uchiha, however the First Hokage, Hashirama Senju was married to the Uzumaki matriarch, Mito Uzumaki at the time was he not?" Naruto said while posing it as a question.
Receiving a look of understanding and a nod of assent, Naruto continued in his monologue. "I made an observation the other night, well two of them, but they go together. One was that I'm favored by the civilians because of my name and while I am happy to be a member of a prestigious clan such as the Uchiha, I need power and skill to go with my name. The other observation is of my newest friend, who knows not that I'm a member of the Uchiha, at least I don't think she does. Her name is Naruko Uzumaki." Naruto continued while looking out the window over the village.
Seeing how he tensed up, Naruto filed that info away for later. "She is the perfect example of how I would like to be treated, she berates me, hits me with due cause, and is thankful when given something, she is someone that I could grow to be fond of at a later point, but that is not up for discussion at the moment. I have noticed how she is treated by the civilians, and as such I would like to be a friend in return to her, and help to take care of her." Naruto said, turning back to the older man who was now puffing away on his trusty pipe.
"But, Naruto-kun, wouldn't you be able to protect her better with your name?" The Hokage asked, still in grandfather mode.
"I considered that at first, but discarded the idea because as of right now, my name is worthless to me." Naruto said as his eyes grew hard, a strange look on Naruto's face to anyone that knew him extensively. Seeing that the Hokage had tensed up again, he realized his mistake.
"Sorry, that came out wrong. What I mean is my name won't protect her at the moment. Hence this plan, I need to discard my last name, to learn what the village truly thinks of me, so that I can be a better leader to them. My name will only bring problems, as any enemy will come after me and anyone I'm near to lure me out just to gain a reputation as the one who killed an Uchiha." Naruto pointed out as the Hokage nodded before continuing his speech.
"In fact, you don't really have to do much, my birth certificate only reads Naruto U. which could mean either Uchiha or Uzumaki, I could easily assume the job of protecting her from the civilian mobs, and play the part as her assumed brother. It really is simple for you, all you have to do is just announce that I was found dead with an assortment of wounds inflicted by a mob. Uchiha clan custom dictates that the body of our deceased be cremated in the flames of our parents and siblings if possible." Naruto informed the older man before sighing.
"Besides the fact that if I die, maybe I'll learn how loving this village is truly to its heroes' children." Naruto mumbled causing the Hokage to choke on his pipe.
"What, you think I can't recognize the exact replica of my mother's best friend, an S-class kunoichi, and secret wife to the Yondaime." Naruto said with a smirk as the Third looked at Naruto incredulously.
"H-How did you know. Mikoto had better not have told you kids!" The man shouted, Naruto was thankful for the privacy seals on the wall.
"She didn't and I didn't, well I knew the first one, Kaa-chan had a picture of herself and Kushina back in the Academy days. You told me the rest, although I had speculated after a few of the civilians had mistakenly called me Yondaime-sama." Naruto said with an eye smile as he faced the Third one last time.
"So, by that logic, if Kushina, and the Yondaime had had a son, I would most like be the result, an almost replica to the Fourth Hokage, oh well, think of it like this, I could pass for Naruko brother, our names are almost identical. So, what will it be, Sarutobi?" Naruto said, using Sarutobi's surname to show the seriousness of the situation.
"Humph, fine brat, I'll help you, but you better not let her get hurt, or next time your death won't be fake!" Sarutobi answered releasing just enough KI to put the kid on his knees before dispelling in a puff of smoke.
-(Flashback End)-
Naruto chuckled at the memory before he turned and began his trip down to the streets of Konoha as he began humming a tune that entered his mind. Suddenly remembering something else, he reached into his back pocket and pulled out a piece of paper, and smiled before folding it back up and putting it back in its place.
-(With Naruko)-
As she walked down the streets of Konoha, she noticed all the glares that weren't unusual, but the grins on everyone's face were an unusual sight for the child redhead. She looked down at her clothes, thinking that they maybe the cause of the strange and foreign looks.
She was wearing a red sweater because of the cold outside with an orange skirt that cut off at her legs, mid-calf. On her feet was a pair of orange sandals, she remembered that she had her hair up in twin ponytails with her red hair ending about shoulder blade length. She still couldn't understand the looks before she saw them turning the corner, the mob, now them she recognized, but usually they would leave her alone with exception of her birthday every year. She knew that the vast majority of the mob would be civilians but she had no combat skills, so she couldn't really fight back.
As she turned tail and ran back towards safety, her Jiji's tower, her sanctuary, she saw the villagers move to block her way. Many of the civilians had met earlier and had planned to trap the 'fox' so that the others could catch up and kill the 'demon'.
As she tried to push her way through the crowd, she suddenly felt a boot plant itself in her gut, sending the young girl off to the side and into an alley. Racing down the alley as fast as she could, she soon found out that it was dead-end. Quickly turning to try and escape, she met only the front of the mob that had gathered to try once again to end her life.
She clenched her eyes shut as one man raced forwards with a pitchfork upraised, waiting for the burning pain to begin. However, she never felt it, only felt a warm liquid on her cheek, and heard a dull thump. As she opened her eyes, she saw the back of a dark cloaked figure with his sword out with blood on the tip and the attacking man on the ground clutching his shoulder.
"Haha, it takes this many of you to catch a little girl, wow, what a crazy game of tag. You know, I read in a book somewhere that in some western countries, they play something similar called 'fox hunt'. Is this similar?" Naruto asked as the mob grinned and nodded causing Naruto in turn to grin bigger and Naruko to curl deeper into the dark corner of the alley.
"Well, then, since you were chasing her, then you must be the dogs?" Naruto asked again, laying his trap.
"No, no, you misunderstand, we're- " Some started before nodded in affirmation.
"Oh, okay, then you are the foxes, I always wanted a fox pelt jacket, let's get this game started." Naruto said before he ran towards the crowd with his sword out, the blade seeming to shiver with excitement at all the blood about to be spilt.
Bouncing off the wall, Naruto jumped over the crowd before spinning in mid-air and slashing at some of the defenseless civilians.
The mob may have been able to take Naruko on because of their superior numbers, but they were still civilians and as such, fell before Naruto, who was a half-shinobi. He had yet to enter the Academy so he on had his sword, and two Katon jutsu to go on, and what little Taijutsu he observed from his fights with Itachi and the one fight with his Kaa-chan. He may have some skills, but he still couldn't take on all the civilians if they decided to fight back. The only reason he was winning currently, if you could call it that, was because he had the element of surprise on his side.
The crowd seemed to realize that as they began to hit him from all sides until he was pushed back to the front of the mob, however, he hadn't went peacefully as several civilians fell to wounds inflicted by Naruto.
While the plan required Naruto to take a dive, he wanted the crowd to remember him and to get the message, 'Don't mess with Naruko'. As one civilian stabbed his arm with a butcher's knife, they crowd seemed to grow as others off the street jumped in to help the mob kill the 'demon' and her savior.
"You want to help the demon, then you are a demon lover, and will bear the demon's mark!" The butcher said as he held Naruto down as he dragged the bloody knife across Naruto's cheeks, leaving scars similar to Naruko's whiskers.
If the man expected Naruto to scream out in pain, he was disappointed as instead Naruto formed hand seals with his hands above his head before inhaling and blowing a fireball right in the butcher's face, burning the flesh, forcing the man back into the crowd, who flinched away from the disfigured man.
"Kuso, he's a shinobi, but he can't be much older than an Academy student!" One woman yelled before the crowd unconsciously took a step back as Naruto hauled himself to his feet breathing heavily.
"I didn't want to do this because I'm probably going to either kill myself from chakra exhaustion or give away my identity, but screw it!" Naruto said as he breathed heavily before make a rapid series of hand signs and slamming his hand on the ground, as wind erupted from the impact making a rush of wind his the crowd before Naruto exhaled causing a fireball to blow down the alley, incinerating several of the civilians as the close quarters of the alley worked against them.
However, he didn't expect the civilian to come back stronger than ever before as now they had more people than before. Rushing up the alley, they intended to end this fight before the 'fox child' crawled away to safety.
As Naruto saw them approaching, he forced himself to his feet. They simply bypassed him and grabbed at Naruko who screamed a dead-raising scream, which caused a surprising reaction in Naruto, who grabbed his head as he screamed in turn.
"No, no, no! I won't let you hurt Naruko, I WON"T LET YOU HURT MY FRIEND!" Naruto screeched before his lifted his sword and in a flash of speed he didn't know he had, he appeared between the crowd and Naruko, severing at least 6 different hands to make room before he settled into a sword stance.
"Take this and die! BLOOD MOON QUARTERING!" Naruto called as he began slashing left and right as he began marching through the crowd as he watched his blade with some minor satisfaction. He could see that the civilians were having trouble following the glint of his blade, but Naruto was watching it like a cat's tail.
"So, this is my Sharingan huh, how ironic. On the event of me leaving the Uchiha name behind, the very bloodline that was promised me forms to me. Well, time to test this out as he mumbled something under his breath his steam seemed to run out.
The civilian's noticed this and returned slash for slash, utterly mutilating his body before turning on Naruko who had disappeared into the shadows of the night. Blaming Naruto for the loss of their prey, they stabbed his body over and over again in replacement of the 'demon child' before finally just leaving their weapons stuck in his body before walking off as no one tried to remove the hood on the body of the now dead savior to Naruko.
-(With Naruko)-
Naruko was broken, she curled up on her bed as sobs racked her body as she remembered the fool who tried to help her. Such was the fate to everyone who tried to help her. Well, with the exception of the ANBU and Jiji, but they couldn't really help her like she needed since she known the stupid civilian council would have her Jiji's head if he punished the people for attacking her, she still didn't know why they attack her. The ANBU could only help to a different degree, they were allowed to help but the issue was that many had more crucial things to do than baby sit a little girl of five years.
As she heard knocking at her door, she rushed to open it just so she could go ahead and die since no one ever really visited her to see her, only to hurt her. Opening the door she jumped at the person, assuming they had a weapon ready only to collide with a body, a rather toned and comforting body though Naruko didn't understand why.
Opening her eyes, she met bright blue and coal black eyes that closed to smile before she realized who it was.
"Naruto, *sniff* what are you doing here?" Naruko asked, tears still in her eyes as Naruto entered her run-down apartment.
"What, a friend can't come visit his friend?" Naruto said as Naruko took in his bag, and the mask drawn across his face, much like a man she had met before with silvery hair and his nose in an orange book.
"I suppose, but to be honest, I don't really feel like company tonight." Naruko said before Naruto snickered.
"What, do I have something on my face?" She asked worriedly.
"No, no, it's just, that, well, I'm your new roommate." Naruto said with a smile.
"Huh?" Naruko asked confused.
"I'm moving in with you, I got in a big fight because of my family so I'm moving in with you. I even brought presents!" Naruto said which made Naruko smile as she stuck her hand out.
Naruto removed the scroll from his pocket and informed her that it had a sword in it and explained about it being a sentient sword in the sense that it fed off of lunar energy, and Naruto's blade was its brother.
Naruto thanked Naruto before smirking as she reached up to kiss his cheek before he thrust a small square into her hand. Looking down, she saw it was a picture of a girl that looked almost identical to her, with perhaps a bit more baby fat, but a lot of people had more baby fat than Naruko, she just couldn't eat enough to be called fat.
"Why do you have a picture of me you creep?" Naruko exclaimed loudly while Naruto shut the door to his new apartment.
"I bring you gifts and you call me a creep?" Naruto asked as he entered kitchen and began unloading all the foodstuffs he brought.
"Whatever, marry me, give me a child, become the Hokage, you're still a creep." Naruko informed the blonde.
"And you're still the most beautiful girl in the world." Naruto retorted causing the red head to blush. "And it isn't a picture of you, it's your mother, Kushina Uzumaki." Naruto said before silence hit the house/apartment.
"Naruko?" Naruto asked as he returned to the room as Naruko tackled him and squeezed him as hard as she could with tears running down her face.
Not giving Naruto a moment to react, she pulled his mask down before kissing his cheek once again before feeling the unusual feeling from last time as she opened her eyes to find whisker marks similar to her's.
"It's him, the one who protected me!" Naruko thought as blood rushed to her head.
This was all too much for one night as the red head chuckled before clutching onto the blonde like her own personal teddy bear which he supposed, from now on, he was.
A/N: Okay, here's the third chapter, and as promised, I've uploaded them all together so don't worry, be happy! Anyways, I want this to be clear, this will be a different kind of story, by different I mean my first, well a lot of things so please bear with the story and if you are displeased with how something is, just let me know in a review please. Have a good day, and if possible, have a Mountain Dew on me.