Okay guys. I'm really sorry that it's taken me forever to write up this chapter. I had the meanest writers block for it. Hopefully the next chapter will come out more swiftly. I hope you like this one though.
It didn't take them long to reach the village since it was right next to Konoha, but they didn't actually enter the village as they veered off to the right.
"Alright," the more outgoing of their two charges said. "Follow me and I'll take you to our mother's house."
The other man just rolled his eyes and followed the first with team 7 close on his back.
"My mother is going to love you guys," the outgoing one continued.
"She loves everyone," the other sighed.
"Well yea," the outgoing one continued, "but she's going to love you guys. She'll probably invite you to stay the night at her house so that you don't have to sleep in a hotel."
"We aren't going to stay that long," the other reminded him. "We have to get back before the end of the day. This is just a quick visit."
"Well that's true," said the outgoing one, "but she'll still offer it won't she? She always tries to make us stay so much longer than we really should. It's like she's trying to make us move in with her." He continued to ramble as they all walked through the town until they came upon an old house that was set a little ways away from everything. It was a beautiful house surrounded by trees with a garden in the backyard that could just barely be seen from the front. The actual house was small, but it was made to look beautiful so that size didn't really matter.
"Here we are," the other man interrupted his brother when they arrived at the front door.
"Oh," the outgoing one laughed, "I hadn't even noticed."
"I could tell," the other rolled his eyes.
"Your so mean to me brother," the outgoing one whined playfully before ringing the doorbell.
It didn't take long for the mother to rip the door open and encompass her two sons in a hug. "Oh how I missed you!" she exclaimed happily. "You two don't visit often enough. You have to visit more."
"Of course mother," the other man agreed nonchalantly. They had this conversation almost every time that they came to visit because, no matter how many times they really did come to visit, it would never be enough for their mother who wanted to spend every moment with them.
"Well come in," she said happily before she noticed the ninjas that were standing just behind her sons. "Oh!" she said happily. "You brought ninjas with you. I get to see them so rarely these days. Come in. Come in. I'll be sure to make you something nice to eat. Maybe some biscuits. I'm sure you're all hungry after your trip over here."
"Thank you," Kakashi smiled kindly and moved to step into the house. Unfortunately, this move also exposed Naruto to the gaze of the kind old woman.
"What is that thing doing here?" she hissed as soon as she saw him. Sasuke immediately moved in front of Naruto in protective gesture, but even his physical presence could do nothing to protect Naruto from the words that she lashed out. "Why did you let that monster come with you to bring my precious sons to me. He could have hurt them. He could have killed them. He would have killed them if you gave him the chance."
"Mom," the older of her sons tried to warn her, but she continued on nonetheless.
"No!" she yelled. "I will not let a demon into my house. He can stay outside and hopefully die of pneumonia or something."
Suddenly there was a kunai at her throat and Kakashi's eye glaring daggers at her. "How dare you speak about that," he hissed under his breath. "You know it is against the law."
"It's not coming into my house," she countered. "I don't care what you do to me, but it is not coming into my house."
"Then neither are we," the outgoing son said as he stepped out of his own mother's house.
"I think that we can just go into town," said the older one, "and then go back home after that. We were planning to get home before dark anyway. Now we'll just come home a bit earlier than expected."
"Don't go!" the woman said frantically. "You just arrived."
"You aren't being nice," the outgoing one said, "so we're leaving."
"No," she pleaded with them. "I'll let the…thing in my house if you stay for a little while longer." Her only response was a glare from her outgoing son as her older son turned and began walking back to the village.
"Come on," the older one said. "I'm sure that we can find something for Naruto in the village before we head back home…Where is Naruto?"
Sasuke turned quickly to see that Naruto was indeed missing. "Damn it," he hissed angrily. "I'll go look for him."
"No," Kakashi stopped him. "Let me go look for him. You go into the village and make sure that no one attacks our charges."
Sasuke wanted to protest, but Kakashi had already disappeared into the woods to find Naruto. Then he wanted to follow the man despite his wishes, but he realized that there had to be a reason that Kakashi wanted to be the one to find Naruto so he begrudgingly left with the men to enter into the village. He was not happy, however, to find that the woman was following them and begging forgiveness from her sons.
It didn't take Kakashi long to find Naruto. The boy hadn't run far and he didn't make any effort in trying to hide his chakra so Kakashi knew exactly where to go. He did not, however, exactly know what to do when he got there. Naruto was sitting in a clearing, holding himself in the smallest ball that he could manage, and having a panic attack while tears fell relentlessly down his face. Kakashi had the general knowledge on how to deal with a panic attack, but didn't have any experience dealing with this kind of reaction in children since team 7 was actually his first team to train. But he couldn't just leave Naruto there.
"Naruto," he whispered as he crouched in front of the boy. Naruto didn't even look like he heard him. "Naruto, you need to breathe. Take a deep breath in… and let it back out." He was happy to see that Naruto was doing as he was told whether it was consciously didn't really matter. "That's it," he continued. "In… and out… In… and out." Naruto matched his breathing until he was breathing calmly without being told to do so and then Kakashi found that he suddenly had a young boy in his arms while he sobbed.
"They know," Naruto sobbed as he clung to Kakashi's clothes desperately. "They know about me! They know that I'm a demon now."
"That's not true," Kakashi muttered in his most soothing voice as he rubbed circles on Naruto's back. "You are not a demon and they will never think that you are one."
"But they know about the Kyuubi!" Naruto wailed.
"No they don't," Kakashi said as he started rocking back and forth. "They don't know about the Kyuubi. They just think that the old woman was being cruel and trying to hurt you. They don't think that you're a demon. Did you know that our charges immediately left their mother's house when she refused you entrance?" He needed to get Naruto to focus on something else. Something at least somewhat positive.
"They're going to hate me," Naruto continue on his strand of thinking despite Kakashi's attempts to turn it in another direction.
"I don't think that they will hate you," Kakashi responded.
"Yes they will," Naruto said. "They're going to hate me and then they're going to hurt me just like everyone else."
"Come on Naruto," Kakashi soothed. "This isn't like you. You need to stay strong. They won't hate you for something some batty old woman said to you. Sasuke's really worried about you. He wanted to come and find you himself, but I told him to stay with our charges."
"Why?" Naruto asked. His mind was finally starting to calm down now and he was starting to think clearly even though his fear that everyone would hate him still remained ever present.
"I didn't think that it was such a good idea for him to be the one who came to comfort you given the circumstances," Kakashi replied honestly, "but he was really worried and I think he really wanted to hurt that old woman despite the fact that is against ninja policy to hurt civilians."
"Did he really?" Naruto asked as he finally looked up at Kakashi with his eyes red and puffy, but letting out less tears than before.
"Yea," Kakashi nodded. "And our charges said that they are going to explore the village and then return home so that we can get there before nightfall. Do you want me to take you to ramen when we get home? As a birthday treat?"
"Tomorrow?" Naruto asked not willing to say that he was afraid of what would happen if he went out during the Kyuubi festival that always occurred on the night of his birth. Even though the villagers had treated him nice through the day, he did not want it to change when the Kyuubi festival started like it no doubt would.
"Tomorrow," Kakashi agreed easily. "Now come on. Let's go back and join everyone else. I'm sure they're all worried about you."
"Okay," Naruto agreed as he scrubbed his eyes clean. He had to pull himself together. He was a ninja and he didn't need to be having a panic attack every time someone mentioned the demon in front of Sasuke. He had to be strong if he wanted to be Hokage.
I've realized that I've never given the villagers who team 7 escorts a name so I'm just going to admit this now. I am horrible at making up names. I'm sorry about this, but bare with me and I'll make sure that anyone who is going to be a big part to the story as a whole has a name. I'm really sorry about this.