Benetto didn't remember a time without Naruto. They had met in the village orphanage and bonded over their unpopularity. Though, he supposed, at least Benetto knew why he was so unpopular. He had terrible luck.

Whenever the other kids had asked him to play with him–in the early days before his bad luck was known–someone always wound up getting hurt. Eventually, they caught on to that and went out of their way to avoid him.

This is how he came to meet Naruto.

"I like your whiskers!" he remembered telling the blond when he first saw them, "I'm Benetto!"

Naruto had looked suspicious of him at first before grinning, "I'm Naruto!"

And they hadn't needed much more than that.

Accidents, of course, still happened but Naruto healed unusually fast and never seemed too perturbed about it. Soon the two of them became known as Konoha's pranksters, though Benetto never actively participated in any of Naruto's pranks.

He was simply unlucky enough to get roped into them most of the time.

But there was something that Benetto didn't even tell Naruto about–and he usually told Naruto about everything–because there was something else he couldn't remember a time without: his dads.

That is what he liked to call the masked men. He'd never called them that to their face (well, mask) but that didn't stop him from thinking of them as such.

He didn't remember it himself but he was told of how Eagle and Boar had found him as a baby, the only survivor of an ambush by rogue shinobi. They'd brought him to the Leaf Village and when he was taken in by the orphanage, they came to check on him.

Monkey once told him about how Boar and Eagle had asked him to make sure he was alright when they were off on a mission. Really, the Anbu had never meant to be a part of the child's life, it had just sort of happened.

And so Benetto had six dads that he had never seen the face of.

—

Benetto had grown up around Shinobi that used sign language to communicate with each other and so when he and Naruto were four, he started to teach his friend all the signs he knew.

"It's gonna be our own secret language!" Benetto told him.

"Yeah!"

Naruto was eager to learn. Not only were these signs similar to shinobi seals and looked super cool but they would also help them in secretly planning pranks!

The two of them were sitting on Benetto's bed. He shared his room with a couple of other kids but they were all out playing, leaving the boys to their own devices.

"When I'm Hokage, you should be my advisor, Ben-chan!" Naruto proclaimed.

"Well, what if I become Hokage?"

"Eh? You can't do that! I said it first!"

Benetto laughed, "Okay, well I am going to be the Jonin commander! Then I get a say in whether you become Hokage or not!"

"But you'll say yes to me being Hokage, right?"

"Yes but only if you become really strong! Like the Sannin!"

"I'll be even stronger than this Sannin guy!" Naruto boasted with a first in the air.

"It's not a guy! It's a group!"

"Huh? Who are they?"

Benetto cleared his throat and put on a self-important face, "The Sannin were a group of three shinobi who fought in the Second Great Ninja War. They are legendary for their ninja prowess and were the students of the third Hokage! All three of them were at one point considered for the Hokage seat but for different reasons, that never happened."

"I will fight all three of them then and then I'll be Hokage!"

"And then we'll be the best ninja in the village!"

"Believe it!"

—

A year after they made their promise to each other, they were old enough to attend the academy. Benetto thought Naruto would be happy about it but that evening he found his friend crying on one of the benches in the orphanage's courtyard.

"Did you not pass the entrance exam?" Benetto asked his friend.

Naruto sniffed and wiped at his exes, "I did but then stupid Taigen said I have to move out of the Orphanage!"

"What? He can't do that! You're not even a grown-up yet!" Benetto protested, "I'll talk to him!"

He marched to the office of the head of the orphanage and barged in without knocking, "Why are you kicking out Naru-chan?!"

The frail-looking man in front of him intertwined his fingers and looked over them to the furious child. "It is rude to barge in without knocking. You should know better."

Benetto didn't move so the man sighed, "Naruto is of the age of an academy student, he can legally leave the academy to pursue his own living quarters if he has the funds for it and the Hokage's permission. As it happens, the Hokage has provided him with the funds necessary."

"But he doesn't want to leave!"

"It is better for everyone if he does," Taigen said. "I am sure you'd understand if you were older."

"Then I'll leave with him!"

"You do not have the Hokage's permission and I will not ask him for it."

Benetto didn't understand.

"Why? Why are you always like that when it comes to Naruto?"

"I think it would be better for you to return to your room."

Realizing that he was getting nowhere with this, Benetto stormed out, slammed the office door shut loudly, and went to look for Naruto again.

—

Even with Benetto and Naruto living further away from each other, they could never be separated for long. It had happened more than once that an Uchiha officer had to escort Benetto back home.

"It's not fair!" he complained to the junior officer escorting him, Uchiha Sara.

"I am sure the Hokage has his reasons."

"But what are they then? Why can't he tell us?"

"Hokage-sama has to take care of the whole village, he doesn't have time for us to question his decision. We just have to trust that he will know what's best. If you want to ask questions, become a genin first."

"You're a genin though, right? Can't you ask him for me?"

"I have already asked my clan head but Fugaku-sama ordered me not to question it further. I am sorry," she admitted.

Benetto nodded dejectedly and they continued the rest of the way in silence.

"I'll become a genin and then I'll make chuunin less than two years later and then the Hokage will be so impressed that he'll tell me!" he vowed.

Sara looked down at the determined five-year-old.

"I'm sure you will."

—

Seven years later Benetto was ready to graduate. The only problem? Naruto wasn't.

"I don't get it! What am I doing wrong?" Naruto complained as his clone failed once again.

"Maybe you need more chakra?" Benetto suggested.

Naruto nodded and tried again with the same result. He groaned in frustration, "It's not working!"

"Well maybe we'll be lucky and it won't be part of the test!"

Naruto nodded dejectedly and got up from where they were sitting on his living room floor, "I'm gonna go eat ramen with Iruka-sensei, d'ya wanna come?"

Benetto sighed, "I should probably get going. But after we graduate tomorrow we're gonna start doing missions and then I'll be able to move out and we can live together!"

The prospect of that seemed to cheer Naruto up again.

"It's gonna be so cool-ttebayo!"

The two boys chatted excitedly about their plans while Benetto walked his friend to Iricraku's. They waved goodbye when they arrived and he hurried along to the orphanage.

Tomorrow they would be genin.

—

The Academy test came and Benetto passed, even if his scores weren't perfect. He waited outside the academy building for Naruto.

His best friend came out of the academy building with a downcast look on his face.

"Mission Failed," he signed to Benetto in their sign language.

"Just because of one technique?!"

"I guess it's just that important," Naruto shrugged.

At that moment, Mizuki-sensei approached the two of them.

"Hey, Naruto, can I talk to you for a moment please?"

The blond frowned and followed his teacher back into the academy, singing "Later" to Benetto behind his back.

Hours passed and he had yet to hear from his friend. Eventually, he decided to miss his curfew and sneak towards Naruto's apartment.

On the way there he noticed how multiple Anbu had been stationed around the hospital.

Curiously, he walked closer and heard a familiar voice ask, "Will he be okay?"

"Your sensei will be fine," a voice replied, "You can visit him tomorrow. During visiting hours."

Naruto was pushed out of the hospital and his frown turned into a grin when he saw Benetto.

"Ben-chan, look!" he pointed at his headband and started telling him about how he received it from Iruka but that wasn't what Benetto was paying attention to.

He was looking at Naruto's hands that were signing, "Important information. Fox inside me. Dangerous."

Benetto had no time to process or try to figure out what his friend meant when he was suddenly grabbed by one of the Anbu.

"Hey! What are you doing?!" Naruto demanded.

Benetto struggled until he saw that it was Lynx who was holding on to him. He was not getting out of this.

"What's wrong?" he asked when they were out of earshot of Naruto.

Lynx remained quiet until they arrived in an office of a dark building.

The man behind the desk in the room was the tallest man Benetto had ever seen. His scarred face was set into what seemed to be a perpetual frown and the boy couldn't see any hair peek out from under his bandana.

His dark eyes fixed on him intently as he lifted his hands to sign, "Mission report."

Without realizing his mistake, Benetto signed back, "Unclear, awaiting further information."

The man sighed, "You're in some deep trouble, kid."

—

One week later Benetto was moved out of the orphanage but he didn't get to move in with Naruto as the two had dreamed. Instead, he was moving in with Ibiki Morino, the head of Torture and Interrogation because apparently, a 12-year-old genin knowing Anbu sign language is a security leak.

At this point, he just felt lucky that they didn't decide to throw him in prison or something.

It took some time to get used to his new home. Instead of sharing his room with a bunch of other kids, he got one all to himself and instead of being greeted by a whole room full of children at breakfast, it's just one scarred jonin quietly eating cornflakes.

"Uh, morning?"

"Morning," Ibiki huffed, continuing his breakfast and drinking from a steaming cup of coffee. He did not seem like much of a morning person.

Benetto sat down with his own bowl and the two ate in silence for a while.

"So, can I still see Naruto?"

"You can't meet up with him for now but you're allowed to see him on missions if another jonin is watching you."

"But he already knows the sign language anyways, what difference will it make?"

Ibiki remained silent.

"It's about the Fox, isn't it?"

The man stood up and put away his empty bowl and cup, "If you leave the apartment for anything other than training and missions, I'll know."

That was as much of a confirmation as Benetto needed. He narrowed his eyes.

"So the Yondaime sealed the nine-tailed fox into Naruto? Is it because Mito Uzumaki was the first jinchuuriki?"

Ibiki rubbed the bridge of his nose in annoyance, "Fine, do what you want as long as you don't talk about any of this with anyone. I trust I don't have to tell you what happens if you do."

Benetto grinned, "Sure thing!"

The relationship between him and Ibiki might not have started off very well but it was only a year later–when most of Konoha was destroyed by one of the very Sanin he had once sworn to best–that Benetto realized the scarred man wasn't all that scary after all and most importantly: he had gained another dad.