Naruto blinked. He opened his blue eyes and found himself covered with with a number of dogs. He couldn't help but feel the nostalgia touch his heart as his eyes traced over to the dogs that had covered the entire bed. They were all quite cute and since Naruto didn't have much experience with animals since they all avoided him like a plague, Naruto found this moment quite nice.
He pat one dog's head and smiled. So soft and cute. Hehehehe. Maybe he could keep one.
"No"
Naruto was stunned. What was that? He looked around his room to find no one and was incredibly confused. Then he brushed it away, he would find out later.
He continued to pat the dog's head and soon heard a small whimper. Then multiple whimpers too. Naruto looked at the other dogs who gave him pleading eyes and bowed their heads. Naruto smiled and then pat one's head.
Poof.
Eh. Ah. Oh. Summoning animals. He had read about them on the basic book of chakra which actually had been useful no matter how small it was. Then again he had painted this apartment on his own, so he guessed it was never good to judge a book by its weight as well.
Naruto kept on patting and rubbing the dogs until only one was left. Naruto felt kind of sad to say goodbye to it, but he pat his head and the dog didn't disappear. Naruto titled his head. He pat and rubbed the dogs head, but it still didn't. Then he looked it, why did the dog have a forehead protector? Was it a ninja?
He rubbed the dog's ears, it didn't disappear and only hummed? Hummed?
"Can you talk?" The dog stopped and looked down, "yeah" and Naruto smiled and rubbed his paws, marveling at how soft they were. "So soft" the dog's eyes widened and then it blushed, "thanks kid, names Pakkun" and poof, Pakkun was gone.
Naruto looked at his surroundings and he felt suspicious. With how much of a ruckus, he caused he had expected to be summoned by the Hokage or at least cause a panic. So what had happened?
Someone knocked on his door and Naruto was surprised. It still wasn't time for his deliveries yet. He opened the door and found an envelope.Naruto took it then closed the door. He opened it and was pleasantly surprised to see a small note. Though he wondered what was the need to put it in an envelope.
You're welcome
-Your neighbor and masked protector
Naruto was surprised. His neighbor? Then he remembered the flash of white hair and the masked guy. It was pretty much all a blur then but Naruto remembered those small details.
His heart felt warm for a brief moment about his neighbor and he felt incredibly relieved. This meant the Hokage hadn't found out and the two ninjas had somewhat stopped him from being discovered, which was surprising considering, the masked protectors were people incredibly loyal to the Hokage. However, they had helped him and Naruto would make sure to pay them back.
He looked at the envelope and saw the address, huh. Should he send back through envelop or, although considering that another masked guy brought his deliveries, who also was loyal to the Hokage. Naruto didn't think so. It was better to be upfront.
He started cooking and baking, whilst he hummed a soft tune, thinking about ..Minato Namikaze, the fourth Hokage and his father. Much less his mother who was the Uzumaki, although he hadn't gotten her name.
"Kushina"
What? Naruto looked around. That voice again. Why was it helping him? And what did it want in exchange? Did it want to be his friend? No, he shouldn't think that, he had just heard a voice come out of nowhere and should be suspicious.
However, considering the events of his life, Naruto found logic quite impossible. He had lost his mind because of his chakra, met people he had never seen before, with one of those people being himself?
So logic was not necessarily something that applied to him.
He sighed slowly at that, Kushina Uzumaki and Minato Namikaze. His mother and father. This was definitely the secret that not everyone knew, because if they did, Naruto was sure that they would treat him different.
As for his parents, Naruto felt relieved that they wanted. And although the memory was short, It was better than the nothing and the lies he had been told his entire life and most likely would have been told, until he himself found out.
Thinking about that, Naruto's eyes dimmed. He didn't feel anger or hatred for the Hokage for this, rather he felt nothing. And he knew he should feel anger or even hatred for being denied about who his parents.
It was a basic right and Naruto had been what? One? Two? Three? Four? He had nothing and had no one and had craved to know if he had been at least wanted.
But every single time he had been denied that right, and Naruto had long accepted that for him, rights didn't exist. Especially here in Konohagakure.
He switched off the stove and put the food in the containers.
And sighed, it didn't matter.
He wasn't angry nor was Naruto hateful. But he would always remember that in these people's heart this was where he stood.