Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto and since that is not me, Naruto doesn't belong to me...

AN: Sorry if I screwed up Naruto's age. If something is wrong, tell me and I'll fix it.

At first Naruto wanted to 'punish' his new teacher for letting him and his new teammates wait, but as soon as their new sensei entered the classroom they were waiting in, Naruto regretted his little prank. Not only did the man call them all a bunch of idiots which Naruto overplayed with his joyful attitude, but Naruto actually knew this man. His teacher, Kakashi Hatake, had been a great friend and saviour in Naruto's past. He had become Naruto's role model and without him, Naruto wouldn't be here today, as a graduated ninja of the village hidden in the leaf. Granted, he wouldn't have graduated without Iruka sensei's guidance and help, but without Kakashi he wouldn't even have entered the academy. And the fact that this man would now become Naruto's sensei filled Naruto with joy.

1)

The first time Naruto had met Kakashi, the man had also been too late; too late to stop the angry and drunk villagers from hurting Naruto. It had been Naruto's birthday, the tenth of October, and a great feast was taken place in the village. Everybody was merry, happy and laughing, at least until they caught sight of him that is. The villagers had called him demon brat, plague, monster and other things Naruto didn't want to recall. And after the first stone hit his arm, Naruto started running away. Unfortunately he lost his orientation and ended up in an impasse. The villagers, who had followed him, were now closing in, still throwing things at him and a few were even brave enough to approach him and beat him with their fists. Naruto had desperately called for help then, but none came. Only after the laughing villagers had left him beaten and at the brink of consciousness, Naruto saw someone with a strange mask jumping from a roof. The unknown person kneeled down in front of him and Naruto immediately noticed the mismatched eyes and the spiky silver hair that glowed in the moonlight. After that, he sunk into darkness.

Naruto awoke the next day in his bed. His wounds had been treated and when he finally got up, a warm meal was awaiting him, along with a little wrapped up package and a short note. In the package was a cute looking sleeping hat, which Naruto immediately put on. He wasn't quite sure what it was supposed to be, but he absolutely loved his present. He then picked up the note, which read:

"Happy Birthday! Take care and I promise the next time, I won't be late!"

2)

The second time Naruto met that mysterious man, was a year later, on his seventh birthday. The unknown man had actually held his promise.

Once again Naruto had found himself cornered by people, only this time his attackers were not mere villagers, but shinobi. Just before the first fist collided with his face, a black figure appeared between Naruto and his attacker and the figure blocked the attack with ease. Naruto immediately recognized his saviour from the last time.

"Get out of our way, Anbu!" One of the shinobi said.

"Yeah, it's our right to take revenge for our loved ones who were killed by this monster!" Another sneered.

Naruto cowered behind his saviour's legs as said man spoke up: "I will not allow you to hurt this boy and if you don't leave now, you will regret it!"

The man's voice was ice-cold and it sent shivers down Naruto's spine.

The shinobi seemed to hesitate and look at each other before they made a silent agreement and attacked together. Naruto closed his eyes; he didn't want to see the silver haired man get hurt because of him. But instead of the man's voice, he heard the pained moans of the shinobi and he dared to take a peek. The silver haired man fought like a wild animal, graceful as a deer and deadly like a wolf. Soon the shinobi were lying bleeding and unconscious on the ground and the masked man turned to Naruto.

"Are you hurt?"

Naruto quickly shook his head, his eyes never leaving the mismatched ones of his saviour.

"Good, you should head back home and look the door and windows. Don't worry, I'll protect you! …and by the way, happy birthday!"

He tossed a little package towards Naruto, who in turn caught it. Inside was a walled in frog design and Naruto smiled at the sight.

"Thank you!" He gratefully mumbled.

"Glad you like it." The man replied. "I have to go now…"

"Wait!" Naruto shouted before the man left. "Will you tell me your name?"

The man seemed to consider the question, for he didn't answer right away.

"I cannot tell you my real name, it's a secret." At Naruto's sad gaze, he quickly added: "But you could call me Inu. This will be our little secret then!"

Naruto beamed at his new friend and nodded eagerly. The man's gaze softened for a moment and he ruffled the boy's hair before turning around and vanishing into the night. The shinobi were still lying on the ground and Naruto carefully stepped over them before he returned home. The whole way he saw a shadow following him and he knew he wasn't completely alone anymore.

3)

The third time was soon after the second time. Words had spread, that Naruto had beaten up a group of shinobi who only defended themselves against the so called 'demon brat'. Nobody would believe the boy, that the man attacked him first and that it wasn't him who had beaten them up. They had started by gathering before his house and shouting at him, after they realized that they won't get in or get a reaction from the boy, the started to throw stone through the windows and paint the walls with graffiti. Naruto, who was scared when the started to hit the door with extreme fierce, had silently jumped out of one window and ran away as fast as his legs could carry him. He only stopped when he had reached a small forest glade. He sat down in exhaustion and tried to calm his breath.

A few minutes ticked by and Naruto didn't notice the approaching angry group of villagers and shinobi until it was too late. But before any of them could react in any way, a masked and silver haired figure appeared before everybody and as soon as the people noticed who was standing before them, they ran away without any fight or objection.

Naruto, who was still slightly panting, looked at the man before them, who had scared away all these people by simply standing there. Naruto noticed the slightly hunched shoulders of the silver haired man and the tired gaze of the other.

Without a word, the man turned around and was about to follow the fleeing mass, when Naruto suddenly grabbed hid pants leg and prevented him from leaving.

"Please, just let them go… don't leave me!"

Inu sighed. "I can't stay, I have-" But whatever protest the masked man was about to give, died in his throat as soon as he gazed into the innocent blue eyes that were wide with a mixture of sadness, hopefulness and fear.

Inu sighed again, before he finally picked up the little boy, who immediately clung to the man's neck. He slowly made his way towards one of the trees and Naruto noticed the slight limp in the man's step, but he chose not to comment on it, afraid that he might offend his friend by pointing out his weakness and that his friend would leave him alone again.

Inu sat down under one of the trees and Naruto was placed in his lap. Naruto cuddled closer to his friend, who slung an arm around him and soon they both found themselves in the land of dreams.

4)

The fourth time Inu did not have to save him from an angry mob. Naruto had been training in the forest for the last few months. Ever since the night of his sixth birthday, when he had seen his friend in action, the little blond boy wanted to become as strong as him. Naruto wanted to become the strongest ninja in the village; he desperately wanted to become the hokage, so he could also protect those who couldn't fight for themselves. He also figured that the villagers and shinobi would acknowledge and protect him, once he became as strong as the old man or as strong as his silver haired friend. But unfortunately, as untrained and unknowing as he was, Naruto not only injured himself while kicking a tree stamp, but he also lost track of time. Or in other words, the sun had long gone down and the little boy was limping through the dark forest, hoping he would find his way out soon, because he was hungry, tired and his leg hurt badly.

After what felt like an eternity, Naruto finally saw a light between the trees and he hurried right there. Unfortunately it turned out to be the exact same forest glade whence he came from. Naruto groaned and was about to try another direction, when the first raindrop hit him. "Great!" He thought. "Now it's also raining."

After landing on the same glade once more, Naruto sat under a large tree, where it was relatively dry and fought back his tears of frustration. His leg hurt even worse than before, he was barely able to take a few steps before he had to stop again, and he was exhausted and wet to the bones.

Naruto sat in complete silence, his head buried in his knees and trying to calm down. The weather was getting worse with every passing minute. The rain pour had turned into a storm and the first roams of thunder could be heard in the distance. Naruto wasn't afraid of a thunderstorm, but he wasn't really keen to spend the night without any kind of shelter during a storm. While Naruto tried to figure out what he should do, a snapping twig alerted him to another's presence. His head snapped up in alert and his fingers were reaching for a kunai he once found abandoned on the training ground, when the unknown intruder started to speak: "Naruto, is that you?"

Naruto immediately recognized the voice of his friend.

"Inu!" He shouted in joy.

"Naruto, there you are! What are you doing out here all by yourself? Haven't you noticed that a storm is approaching?"

The familiar figure came into sight and stepped closer until he was in front of Naruto.

"I was training, because I want to become as strong as you so that I can become hokage one day. And as the hokage, I could protect the people I care about and the villagers will start to respect me then."

"I see. But that doesn't explain why you are not home yet."

"Well, you see, I hurt my leg and I can't find the way out." Naruto sheepishly scratched the back of his head.

Inu sighed. "What am I to do with you? Always getting into trouble! Come here."

Inu kneeled down and took the soaked boy into his arms. Naruto immediately cuddled into him, wetting the elder's uniform in the progress. Inu teleported them out of the forest and out of the rain right into Naruto's tiny apartment.

The silver haired man carried Naruto into the bathroom, helped him out of his wet clothes, dried him up and put him into fresh night clothes. He had also checked Naruto's leg, which was just a bit strained. He used his little knowledge on medical jutsu to heal it and after that, he prepared the already half asleep blond boy something to eat. Instant ramen, since it was already so late and also because of the lack of other eatable things in the apartment. After Naruto had finished, Inu had tucked him in and as soon as Naruto's head had hit the pillow he was fast asleep.

5)

The fifth and last time was because of Naruto's on stupidity. It was a few months after his ninth birthday and a few months till Naruto would be able to enter the academy, when Inu jumped to the rescue once more. Naruto had had the brilliant idea that it would be great to test his physically ability by climbing the hokage monument. Halfway up Naruto started to doubt that his idea was actually as brilliant as he first thought and after three quarters of the way, Naruto was sure that it had not been a good idea.

He had struggled the last quarter of the climb, but – and he would blame his bad luck for it – when he was about to grab the edge to pull himself onto the stony head of the third hokage, the stone gave away and Naruto found himself falling rapidly to the ground. He had closed his eyes then, not wanting to see the fast approaching ground, but instead of hard concrete, Naruto felt two strong arms wrap around him and a soft landing.

When Naruto dared to open his eyes again, he found himself gazing into the mismatched ones of his silver haired saviour. The man's eyes glowed with a mix of worry, shock and anger. Naruto had never seen his friend angry before. Worried and shocked, yes, but never angry.

"Naruto, what were you thinking?" The man started furiously and Naruto shrunk in the man's arms that were still holding him. "You could have gotten yourself killed! Don't you know how dangerous and utterly stupid that was?"

"I'm sorry…" Naruto mumbled.

"You're sorry? Naruto, that's not the point. The point is that you could have been dead, would have been dead if I hadn't been here to safe you!"

"But you are here to protect me, aren't you?"

"Yes, but I would sleep better knowing that you don't endanger yourself on top of everything else!"

Just now did Naruto notice how tired the man looked. His posture was slumped and his eyes looked older, wearier and more tired than ever before. Tears started to form in Naruto's eyes as he realized that he was the cause of the masked man's bad shape.

"I'm sorry! I promise, I will never do something foolish ever again! I swear, but please, don't be angry with me! I'll be good from now on, so you can sleep better!", Naruto cried in the man's chest.

"It's all right, little one. I'm here." Inu said, while holding onto the crying child.

After Naruto had calmed down again, Inu brought him to his little apartment. Instead of leaving like he normally did, Inu stayed and watched Naruto run around, cleaning up the mess on the floor as fast and good as possible.

"Naruto, come here for a moment."

Naruto looked up from the floor and towards his friend's voice. Said friend motioned him to sit down on the bed. Inu immediately sat next to him and folded his hands in his lap, lightly fidgeting with them.

"Inu?"

The man sighed. "I want you to listen closely to what I am saying. Please, don't interrupt me and don't protest, ok?"

Naruto nodded his head and Inu continued: "Naruto, I fear I am not able to look after you like this anymore. I was suspended from Anbu duty and I am to work as a normal jounin now. The hokage wants me to take on a team of genin… I am not happy about his decision, but I can't do anything against it. Do you understand what I am saying?"

Naruto nodded once more, tears staring to fall from his eyes.

"Does this mean we will never see each other ever again?"

"I'm sure we will meet again. Just not so soon and you surely won't recognize me then."

"And who is going to protect me from now on?"

"There will always be people who care about you. Besides, you will enter the academy soon, you can make a lot of new friends there and if things get really ugly, I will be there!"

"Promise?", the boy sniffed.

"Promise! And now," the blond looked up with watery eyes, "stop crying. You are now a big boy, are you not?"

"Yeah, you are right! I am a big boy, believe it!", the blond exclaimed, earning him a chuckle from the older man.

"I believe it, little pup. I believe that you can do it, you will graduate from the academy, you will become stronger than me and you will become the hokage. I even believe that you will surpass all the other hokage before you!"

The boy's eyes shone bright with an emotion, Inu couldn't quite place, but he soon found himself with a lap full of a blond hyperactive kid. He returned the embrace and let himself fall backward on Naruto's bed. They both stayed like this for the rest of the night and when Naruto awoke the next morning, his apartment was empty again. The only reminders of his masked friend were the breakfast that awaited him and the dog mask that rested on his nightstand.

+1)

It had been a hard day of training. Kakashi-sensei had shown and explained them an exercise and the three genins should train until they were able to climb the tree without their hands. Like always Sasuke had been a damn bastard who tried to show off again and Sakura had been admiring Sasuke and his skills. Eventually Sakura had surprised them all by climbing the tree on the first try. Kakashi-sensei had explained the next exercise to her then, walking on water, which seemed to be a lot harder than climbing a tree, if Sakura's facial expression was anything to go by.

Naruto, on the other hand, struggled with the task, but also did Sasuke for the matter. After another fruitless attempt on Naruto's part, the blond boy looked angrily up at the tree before his gaze moved towards his other male teammate, who wasn't doing any better than he. His gaze moved further to Sakura, who was now completely soaked, but more or less successfully standing on the water. It was then that Naruto decided to ask his female teammate for help.

He got up and walked right past Sasuke and ignored the latter's comment if the 'loser' was already given up and stood now next to the lake.

"Ehm, Sakura?", Naruto carefully inquired.

"What is it, Naruto? Can't you see I am concentrating?"

"I do, but I wanted to ask you with you could get me any advise for climbing that tree, it seems I'm not able to pull it off by myself…", he sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck.

Sakura eyed him for a moment, before slowly and carefully walking back towards solid ground. As soon as she reached him, she started to explain him what he did wrong and what he should do instead.

"Thanks, Sakura!"

"No problem.", she smiled.

Naruto then went back to his tree, which was now occupied by his porn reading sensei. Sasuke had come a little higher up now, but Naruto could see the frustration in the Uchiha's eyes. But instead of thinking about the raven boy, Naruto concentrated on what Sakura had told him and tried once more and Naruto was surprised himself by how far he had come, before he lost focus.

Kakashi-sensei had even looked up from his book and he had praised Naruto before turning back to his literature. Sasuke on the other hand was furious, now that the 'loser' has gotten higher up at the tree than him.

After a few more tries, Naruto had almost reached the treetop where Kakashi-sensei was sitting. Unfortunately for him, a squirrel chose this exact moment to come out of its nest and Naruto, who didn't want to step onto the poor animal, promptly lost his footing. If it hadn't been for Kakashi-sensei, who had grabbed Naruto's hand in the last minute and pulled the boy onto the branch next to him, the blond would surely be lying on the cold forest ground, probably hurt as well.

"Thanks sensei."

"That's what I am here for!", said the jounin. He then turned his attention to his other two students: "All right everyone, this is enough for tomorrow. We are going to continue tomorrow."

"Don't be late again!", called Sakura before she vanished in the direction of her home, no doubt to get out of the wet and dirty clothes as soon as possible.

Sasuke just shrugged, he was in a bad mood ever since Naruto was better than him, and left without another word.

"Well, you should head home too, Naruto."

"Actually there is something I want to talk with you about."

"Oh? Well then, shoot."

"It is about something you said a while ago…", the jounin motioned for him to continue, "you said that if we ever meet again I surely wouldn't recognize you…", the jounin's eye widened in realization.

"So you have figured it out then?"

"Is this bad?", asked the blond unsure.

"It has to be our little secret… but other than that, no it isn't. Actually it makes things a lot easier."

"How so?"

The older man motioned for Naruto to come closer and the boy immediately did as he was told. Naruto soon found himself sitting between his teacher's legs and with his back against his teacher's chest. Kakashi rested his head on top of Naruto's, one arm was embracing the boy, the free hand was searching for something in his vest.

"You know, I never gave you anything for entering or graduating the academy."

"You don't have to…", mumbled the boy, snuggling closer to the familiar body of his first companion.

"You're right, I don't. But I want to!" He handed Naruto an official looking scroll.

As soon as Naruto had opened and read the scroll, he was looking at his teacher in awe and disbelieve.

"You really want to… to adopt me?", he asked.

"I wanted to since the first time we met. The problem back then was that I was still in Anbu and I wouldn't have been able to take care of you. And after I left Anbu, well, let's say it would have looked weird for you as well as for the village when a stranger suddenly wants to adopt a child, let alone a child as special as you are."

"As special as me? What is that supposed to mean?"

"I will tell you when you are older… now, what do you say? Want to live with me? I owe a big house with a great backyard and not to forget my summoning dogs. They would love to meet the little puppy I have told them about!"

"You had me after the living with you part!", Naruto grinned.

Kakashi smiled in return and ruffled his newly adopted son's unruly golden locks.

"Well then, let's go get something to eat and then we start packing your things, how does that sound?"

"Can we have ramen?"

"All right! But just to make it clear, we won't have ramen every day. You'll eat what's on the table, this includes vegetables! Got it?"

"If I have to…", grumbled the blond.

Kakashi chuckled before getting up. "Come on then, hop onto my back."

Kakashi carried the boy the whole way to Ichiraku's ramen stand. They both ignored the confused, irritated and sometimes angry and disapproving stares of the villager's and shinobi's. To Kakashi's horror and Naruto's amusement, Might Gai, Konoha's blue beast caught wind of his eternal rival carrying one of his student's around and promptly shouted about Naruto's youthfulness and how the power of youth has melted away the ice that surrounded the heart of his hip and cool eternal rival. Kakashi let his adoptive son swear, to never wear a green spandex or talk to Gai ever again. After manly tears from Gai and laughter from Naruto they eventually found a compromise. Naruto was allowed to talk and train with Gai, but to the latter's dismay Kakashi forbade any contact with the green spandex or the legwarmers.

When they finally got rid of Gai, who mumbled something about 500 laps around Konoha on all fours, Naruto snuggled back into Kakashi's back and mumbled a silent "Thank you, Inu" into his new father's ear.

I hope you liked the story!

Please leave a comment and tell me what you think!

Yours truly

Inkognito