In the warm radiance of the rising sun breaking into a certain office this morning, Konohagakure's own Third Hokage was found sitting behind his large and ornate desk.
The grumbling old man was being forced to face his greatest enemy; the tall stacks of papers on the desk waiting for him to painstakingly go through. He was a little disappointed that he wasn't going to be reading his copy of the latest installment in his student's Icha Icha series for a while longer.
Before long, Hiruzen decided to give his sore writing hand a break and enjoy a mid-morning smoke. As he just got done preparing his long pipe with some new tobacco, the office's door banged open loudly to reveal one blue-eyed and whiskered blond boy.
"Good morning Jiji! Good morning anbu-san!" Naruto chirped as plopped down onto the sofa.
Naruto was revealing his heightened senses for a reason. He needed more advanced training now that he was already 8 years old. His Chakra control had improved beyond his imagination, running up and down trees, fighting on water, he had even managed to get his Chakra control delicate enough to stick the leaf on his forehead a week ago during Iruka-sensei's class.
His physical state had finally reached a acceptable level as well. He did his workouts twice a day with easily now, and if he had to guess, he was physically as fit as his previous genin self. His enhanced strength had also been developing nicely, being able to lift boulders the same size as himself. He constantly pushed himself, strapping rocks to his arms, body, and legs while training.
But now he needed to reach the next level, and that required a teacher. It would also allow him to explain how he could already use jutsu at his age.
The Hokage had to cough violently after he took a surprised intake of breath at this revelation. "How did you know they were there? You never gave any indication of noticing them up until now."
Naruto shrugged and just pointed at his nose then his right ear.
"I can smell them, and I noticed them a year ago or so." he stated matter-of-factly, and the old man was shocked to hear this. Even an Inuzuka would be hard-pressed to sniff out the hidden ANBU. The blonde then smirked.
He turned to point at a spot by the giant bookcase near the office's door. " - I could smell that guy over there had bacon and eggs for breakfast." He paused to sniff once. "Coffee too. Black, I'm guessing."
He then turned to point at the office's lone sofa in the back corner.
"That guy is pretty much dipped in sword cleaning oil. I guess he just likes swords a lot." he deduced before finally turning back to the Hokage and pointed up above at the tiled ceiling.
"That woman up there used some very fruity-smelling shampoo. I guess she thought we're in a tropical area, but I sure as hell don't see any fruit trees around to cover up the smell." he finished.
The Hokage sat there, feeling a little dumbstruck and impressed. For a brief moment, he believed this young boy would grow up to be a truly dangerous shinobi…before the apparently male ANBU in the ceiling hopped down to appear at the Hokage's side and cleared his throat. It was clear Naruto mistook him for a woman, and the boy let out a sheepish grin.
"Sorry Boar-san, I thought you were a woman with that shampoo. No offense, sir." he inclined his head slightly. The boar-masked ANBU just shrugged his shoulders and mumbled something about 'had to use my girlfriend's shampoo' before disappearing back into the ceiling.
"I put a cube of sugar in my 'black' coffee." a man's voice corrected from the hidden spot by the bookshelf. Naruto flinched and turned his head toward the voice.
"Who uses just one cube?! Even I know you put in at least two cubes to even notice any change in the taste, and I don't drink coffee!" he defended. The Hokage gave a brief 'it is kinda true' nod with a half-shrug at this statement.
"I'm a woman." a feminine voice called out from the sofa, sounding clearly amused. Naruto comically twirled his head toward the sofa in shock before sighing.
"Gimme a break…it's not like I've learned to tell the differences between men and women by smell yet."
Hiruzen, having watched all of this, shook his head in amusement.
Well, this boy will at least be dangerous in the future with more practice, I suppose.
The humor was short-lived when he heard something very uncomfortable.
"Though, you should clean your sword better since I can also smell blood all over you. You must've been fighting someone recently." Naruto innocently offered.
Kurama face-palmed inside the mindscape, even the mentally 17 year old Naruto had no idea what he was talking about.
The air in the room quickly chilled and cracked as the other men kept stone still, not wanting to make the slightest amount of noise…even breathing. They all knew she hadn't drawn blood from anyone for days.
Naruto just cocked his head at the suddenly tense atmosphere.
"U-u-um…restroom break!" a panicked female voice cried out before a whoosh of air was heard, signifying the unfortunate woman's departure from the office.
"What the heck just happened?" He inquired as he gazed confusedly at the profusely sweating Hokage. He didn't want to answer that and tried to shrug it off, acting as clueless as the blond boy. It seemed to work when the boy returned the shrug and apparently moved on to another subject in his mind.
"So Naruto, back to the topic of your heightened senses. Its honestly incredible and should be trained to their fullest extent. I think that I'll arrange for an instructor to begin helping you alright?"
Naruto smiled widely. 'Mission success!' He thought.
"Great! Well, I need to get back to my training, Thanks Jiji!" He waved over his shoulder before exiting. The Hokage smiled and set about getting back to the paperwork when he noticed a difference.
"Did this stack of papers just increase in size when I wasn't looking?" he grumbled, directing a nasty glare at the stack that would have set it on fire if it were possible. A sweat drop formed in the air over by the bookshelf.
"No, Hokage-sama. It's just your imagination…I think." the invisible ANBU's voice replied without any conviction. Hiruzen sighed wearily and grumbled for a moment with a small smirk, thinking a certain blonde did something.
This only lasted until he felt something change in the atmosphere, and his eyes narrowed. He quickly waved his hand in a dismissive gesture.
"Please step out for a moment. It seems I will be having a rather shy visitor soon."
The ANBU quickly obeyed and their presences vanished, all trace of the previous humor gone. After a long moment's silence, the Third steepled his hands on the desk as he calmly watched a murder of crows suddenly come into existence out of thin air and flapped around the office for a few seconds, before they all converged toward one spot in front of his desk.
With a sharp caw, the crows then melded together into a young raven-haired human male already down on one knee with his head bowed slightly in salutation. His face was the epitome of stoicism.
"Report." the powerful God of Shinobi rumbled with his suddenly ruthless and steely dark eyes locking with a pair of sinister red eyes that displayed three black tomoes in each iris.
"Hokage-sama, I bear unfortunate news." the man began in a calm and collected voice.
Just outside
A blond boy was snickering mischievously as he went down the tower's stairs.
"How's that for a quick prank? I managed to sneak in an extra stack of papers when the old man wasn't looking. I would've loved to see the look on his face when he notices they were all requests from random villagers for my face to be engraved into the Hokage Monument." Naruto thought while Kurama was chuckling deeply in his head.
"Not bad, brat. It's not the greatest, but it's good enough. Let's get back to your exercises." Kurama ordered as Naruto began stretching at the bottom of the stairs.
Soon in a certain apartment
Mitarashi Anko, a fifteen-year-old kunoichi who was just promoted to chunin, groggily rubbed the sleep out of her eyes with a loud yawn, before she then stretched her entire body in her bed with a contented groan.
She was happy she usually drew the night shifts in most of her duties, since she definitely wasn't a morning person at all. After stretching, she slowly got out from under the blanket revealing a nearly nude body in only a pair of white and purple striped panties. She didn't pay this any mind since it was her preference to sleep that way. She moved over to the closet in her sparsely decorated bedroom.
The young purple-haired teen finished getting dressed for the day when she put on a tight white t-shirt with a random logo on the front, and a black miniskirt. The shirt did little to hide her still-growing breasts, which were a very impressive size for her age. She finished the outfit off with getting her long purple hair done up in the usual fanned-ponytail style, and putting the hitai-ate on under her long bangs that almost completely hid it from view.
She then moved into the kitchen to quickly eat a breakfast of toast and oatmeal. Afterward, she flopped down on her stomach on the living room couch with a heavy sigh, and let her mind wander for a while.
It was three years ago when she was rescued from that dank abandoned lab. She still hadn't recovered any of the memories she lost during the three years she was supposedly with her old sensei, Orochimaru. Not even the top mind arts user, the Yamanaka clan head Inoichi, was able to help her find any trace of those memories. Afterward, the unfortunate young woman was left to deal with picking up pieces of her life, made difficult by the combination of suddenly skipping three years, at least in her mind, into a developing teenage girl's body, and the stigma of having been an apprentice to the village's most hated traitor.
Her first experience with that stigma was the continued disgruntlement of the male ANBU escorting her from that abandoned lab to Konoha. Although he did keep silent under strict orders from the other ANBU escort, she easily felt him staring at her with murder and disgust in his eyes. It grew worse when she arrived in the village and news spread that an ex-apprentice of the traitor Orochimaru was in custody.
By the time she reached the Torture & Intelligence building, villagers and shinobi were already lining the path screaming insults and throwing debris at her. It took a massive dose of killing intent from the female ANBU escort to finally scare the crowd away.
The interrogation was relatively tame because it was already verified by Inoichi that Anko truly did lose her memories and was telling the truth that she had no intention of betraying the village along with her ex-sensei. Yet, this did not keep Morino Ibiki, the Head of Interrogation, from asking her truly invasive and personal questions. The only good thing from that miserable day was the Hokage himself dropping by and assuring her that he did believe her wholeheartedly, and that if she still wished to enter the shinobi force, she was allowed to do so. That put him number two on her list right behind the female ANBU who rescued her and comforted her on the way back to Konoha.
After being allowed out of questioning, she was escorted to an apartment by the same female ANBU that saved her. Upon arriving, the young teen was surprised to find Neko removing her mask, revealing a beautiful and mature-looking young woman with slatted chocolate brown eyes.
Flashback
Anko was rather bewildered by the female ANBU inexplicitly taking her cat mask off in the middle of the living room of the apartment that she was taken to.
"Wha…Neko-san?" the young preteen managed to blurt out upon seeing her savior's beautiful face framed by long purple hair that seemed just a bit more vibrant in its shine than her own. She swore they shared family blood considering just how similar they looked.
"I go by that name when I'm working. Whenever I'm not wearing the mask, you may call me Yugao. Uzuki Yugao." the revealed woman smiled gently as she introduced herself.
"Ok, Yugao-san…but why did you just reveal yourself?" Anko could not get it in her head that someone was actually nice to her after the last few days of dealing with nothing but anger and misery.
"It makes sense for me to officially introduce myself as your new roommate, Anko-chan. I studied your file and I noticed you have no relative to stay with anywhere near here. Considering how the past few days went since you entered this village, I feel you could use someone to help you through this horrible time. I also hope we will come to be good friends someday as well." Yugao offered sincerely. This stunned Anko into silence as she stared at her new roommate wide-eyed for a few long minutes.
The sixteen-year-old ANBU shifted uncomfortably under the stare. Perhaps she was wrong about Anko wanting someone to help her? She almost didn't hear the younger teen's response in her growing internal panic.
"T-t-thank…you." Anko barely whispered as she shuffled over to the older woman, her arms spreading out slowly. As she got closer, tears were beginning to stream down her cheeks like waterfalls. When she finally clutched her new roommate into a crushing hug, she released a loud wail of misery and anguish.
The dam finally broke wide open for one Mitarashi Anko as she just let out all the negative emotions she held in over the last few days of hell.
Yugao had to hold in a sniffle as she hugged her now-proclaimed 'little sister' back tightly. Her hand then instinctively began raking through the young girl's purple hair gently as Anko continued to sob and wail into her savior's chest for what seemed like eternity.
End flashback
Anko was jolted out of her thoughts by the front door banging open. She glanced up to see her older roommate, nineteen-year old Yugao, stumbling into the apartment as if she had been turned into a zombie. The off-duty ANBU slowly unlatched her sword from her back, and removed her mask with a disgruntled growl. She then tossed them onto a chair rather carelessly. At this point, Anko noticed her surrogate sister's downcast expression as the older woman unceremoniously flopped onto a chair at the dining table with her head burrowing into her arms with a groan.
"Something happen today, Yugao-nee? I thought you got the easy shift this time with guarding the old man?" she carefully inquired as she sat herself upright on the sofa, a little worried if something happened to the Third.
"I did get the easy shift. I even got the comfortable spot on the sofa today. All I had to do for the entire morning was to just sit there and be invisible." Yugao mumbled as she raised her head from her arms, her face still downcast and…blushing with embarrassment?
"So…something clearly happened."
"So…'it' came early." Yugao vaguely said, expecting her roommate to get the meaning. Anko had to wince in sympathy.
It took her a long time to get used to the idea of a girl's body suddenly bleeding and cramping up painfully once every month. That was one of the most jarring effects of her suddenly transitioning from her nine-year-old self to a twelve-year-old preteen already beginning puberty when she lost her three years of memories. This got her very embarrassing conversations with her surrogate sister about periods, puberty, and sex for many weeks afterward. Not to mention the awkward visits to a specialized medic nin just for checking on her reproductive health. She only just had gotten used to the idea of becoming a woman recently.
"Ouch. Lose your favorite pair?" she wondered, expecting this reason to be why Yugao was depressed. It was not like anyone was going to be able to tell with her dark-colored ANBU-style pants.
"No. That's probably the only good thing from this. I didn't lose any pair because I was… told just when it began." the older woman vaguely said, still looking depressed.
"Oh, I guess that's fine…wait, what did you say? You were told?!" Anko's eyebrows shot up in amazed incredulity.
"Yes, Anko-chan, I was told that I just started my period - " Yugao was now trembling. "- by this eight-year-old blond boy with a better sense of smell than the entire Inuzuka clan! Right there! In the goddamn Hokage's office! With the freakin' Hokage and two of my comrades within earshot in the same fuckin' room!" she cried out pitifully before slamming her head back into her arms on the table.
"If Hokage-sama assigns me easy missions this time next month 'out of concern for me', I'm going to stab him repeatedly with my sword, I swear to Kami!" the purple-haired ANBU growled.
Despite her roommate's misery, Anko had to stifle a chuckle. It wasn't like the usually composed Yugao to go off the handle.
"So how did the brat look after you've sliced him into pieces for his offense?" she teased.
"I didn't do anything to him. Besides, he had no idea what he was saying. He thought I was fighting someone and suggested I clean up because he smelled the…blood." she grumbled with a shudder at the last word. Anko winced, wondering just how that particular and perfectly natural body function smelled to any sensitive nose.
"He's an adorable and naive little boy with those whisker marks on his cheeks and beautiful blue eyes. I could never stay mad at him even if I tried." she admitted with a small smile before sighing dejectedly. "I'll be okay…I'll probably forget about all this after a week. It just was embarrassing today, that's all."
With Naruto
"A-Aachoo! I-Is someone talking about me?" The young blonde wondered.
Anko raised an eyebrow at her surrogate sister's impression of the boy. Yugao generally didn't care for kids because she considered them brats, and did not intend to have any kid of her own for a long time. If she ever got around to it, that is. This kid must have been someone special to endear himself to Yugao rather easily.
"Who's this kid then? Must've been super-skilled or high-class VIP if he can just barge into the old man's office." she asked offhandedly. Yugao smiled at her roommate's curiosity.
"No, just a kid that Hokage-sama considers to be his surrogate grandson. His name's Uzumaki Naruto, and I can tell he will grow up to be a very interesting, and probably amazing, shinobi. It's almost too bad he's not close to your age…at least for the time being. You two would get along great when he becomes older and more mature. Hell, despite his naivety, he's mature beyond his age." Yugao sadly said, knowing exactly the reason why he had to grow up so quickly.
"Really? What kind of history did he have?" Anko inquired, but her roommate shook her head soberly.
"Sorry, Anko-chan. I trust you but that's a S-class secret that only jounin and ANBU are allowed to know. You'll just have to hurry up and get promoted to understand everything about Naruto." she replied mysteriously.
Even though Anko had on an impatient scowl, she just shrugged this off and got up to put on her black kunoichi sandals.
"Sorry to hear about your morning, Yugao-nee. I'll leave you alone to wallow in your humiliation while I go out to kill time." she declared with a teasing grin. Yugao just stuck her tongue out at her roommate before returning her head to rest on the table with a groan.
Anko chortled briefly as she stepped out the front door.
On a random street in the village
Naruto was panting heavily as he continued to run at a quick pace up the street. He was already used to the open glares from the people on the street, so they didn't even register. However, with his superior hearing, he could hardly ignore the whispering about the 'demon brat'. Some of the things he heard almost made him stumble over in exasperation at their idiocy; like how he was training to get stronger so he could destroy the village. That they were somewhat cowering while muttering that 'they needed to hurry up and kill him quickly' almost made him laugh.
However, he was encouraged to hear some positive comments from some of the younger people like how he 'saved the Hyuuga heiress' and 'would a demon have done that?'. They also began to notice how he still remained cordial to them despite being openly shunned. He had to smile. Hearing just one of these positive comments made it worth hearing a thousand insults from the others.
He was so distracted by his happy thoughts that he did not notice someone standing in his way. He slammed into the person's leg hard and caused both of them to fall.
"How dare you try to hurt me, you damn demon brat?!" the man hissed harshly. The boy knew he was in for it, but he had to try to calm the man down. He put both hands up in a placating gesture.
"I'm sorry. I wasn't watching where I was going. I was just jogging." he tried to say calmly.
"Don't think you can trick me with that nice act! I know you're secretly training to destroy this village in the future! Well, I'm going to do everyone here a favor and put an end to that right now!" the man declared to the other villagers gathering around him as he drew out a long knife from his belt. The villagers gasped and some of them cheered.
Naruto sighed and tightened his fist behind his back, ready to knock the guy out the second he made a move.
However, before he could knock the guy's lights out, a beautiful purple-haired teenage girl with pupil-less light brown eyes gripping the large man's knife hand in place as if it was nothing.
Mitarashi Anko glared harshly up at the nervous man, who stared at the young girl fearfully before his face began to grimace in pain as the girl tightened her grip on the man's hand. Naruto could hear the slight cracking of bones in the man's hand for a second until he heard a cry of pain.
At the sound, the young girl finally let go and the man stumbled back clumsily, dropping the knife in the process. Clutching at the fractured hand with a pained grimace, the man glared balefully at the purple-haired girl.
"You…you fucking bitch! Of course a traitor's whore would protect the demon brat!" the man spat out, only to wilt under Anko's glare and her rather impressive killing intent.
"You'd better get it into your idiotic brain if you know what's good for you, and the same goes for all of you..." Anko swept her arm out to indicate the other villagers surrounding them. "I'm a kunoichi of this village and my job is to do what I think need to be done to keep the peace and protect its people. I just saw a cute little boy being harassed and about to be cut up by a pathetic retard that seemed to think he was out to destroy the entire village."
The purple-haired girl laughed mirthlessly for a few seconds before pointing at the large man.
"You'd have been more of a danger to this village than this boy could ever be if stupidity is actually contagious! In fact, I should probably lock you up anyway for public safety." she spoke with a malicious grin that sent shivers down everyone's spines. After a moment of holding that expression, she then let out a suffering sigh.
"I really don't need to deal with this crap, so…get the hell out of here before I set my snakes on you. And that goes for ALL OF YOU TOO!" she raged while sending her killing intent everywhere, terrifying everyone around her. In the next instant, it was just the blond boy and her alone on the street.
"Ah. Its that crazy lady from the chunnin exams!" Naruto screamed mentally.
"Thanks, kunoichi-san! You saved me!" he said gratefully upon getting to his feet. Anko could only grin cockily and rubbed a finger under her nose.
"It's no biggie. I don't know why they'd think you're going to destroy the village. You're pretty cute, especially with those whiskers." she teased as she bent over to pinch and stretch one of the boy's cheeks. Naruto could only cry out in indignity as he swatted the hand away. The girl then narrowed her eyes as if she realized something.
"Wait a minute…blond, whiskers, and gorgeous blue eyes…are you Uzumaki Naruto?" she suddenly asked. Naruto flinched in surprise.
"Yeah, I am. How did you know that?"
"I heard it from a little purple cat. Did you know you embarrassed a young woman this morning, gaki?" Anko pointed out, and then smirked upon seeing the blonde looking seriously affronted.
"No way! I didn't do anything to any woman on purpose." the boy huffed with crossed arms, thinking someone else out there was slandering his good name.
"Nah, it's alright...you didn't realize. However, I have a piece of advice for you, and it's very imperative you listen to this, gaki." Anko leaned in to speak in a low voice. Naruto, putting on a curious foxlike expression, brought one of his ears in close.
"Gaki, I hear you have that great sense of smell…and it's pretty useful, I'm sure. However, in the future, if you ever smell any kind of blood on a woman and she doesn't look like she's bleeding from anywhere visible…it's probably very important for your sake that you do not bring it up with her out of nowhere, especially with people around." the teen whispered vaguely, confusing the boy even more.
"Something like that happened this morning, but I don't understand! If I smell blood, that means someone's hurt and bleeding, right?" Naruto tried to press for clarification. The older girl quickly shushed him.
"In a way, you might be right about us occasionally hurting. However, it's extremely...EXTREMELY personal for all women. I'm doing you a huge favor by asking you to just ignore that scent and don't ever mention it. Don't even think about it. You were lucky the woman this morning didn't cut you up out of anger." the girl warned sternly with a serious expression.
Naruto cocked his head with squinted foxlike eyes in bewilderment.
Yugao-nee's right…he is so ADORABLE! she squealed in her mind.
"Ok, I won't say anything about this to any woman ever, kunoichi-san!" Naruto promised frantically. He wondered what the hell was going on, but if this was a big deal for women…he decided he should leave this to them from now on. He had a feeling he'd be better off this way anyway.
"And call me Anko onee-san." She said as she pulled and pinched his cheeks.
"Alright. Please let go now Anko onee-san."
"Very good. I'll see you around the village once in a while, ok?" Anko chirped with a smile before turning around to walk off, waving goodbye over her shoulder. Naruto, even though he was still confused, waved back anyway.
Naruto shrugged before he began stretching his legs a bit to continue his run.