I'm not exactly sure about this whole idea that I had for a new story… but I just kind of wanted to get to it after looking further into the whole Naruto and Anko pairing, when it's done right. So, for all intents and purposes, tell me how you like this first chapter and that'll help me push my interest in it, as I have all but lost motivation at the current moment for my other stories. I usually don't want to write on those ones unless I'm motivated to continue it, or if I'm truly in the right mood for it. But for this, I don't think that'll be the case… I don't know.

A/N: Anko was born the same year as Naruto, ultimately making her the same age as Naruto. The rest of the information about her situation will be followed up with chapters that will tell all of you where she had come from.

Left battered and broken, yet healing and mending unnaturally, could only be described as a complete mess of a child. He was still smiling, all the way through it, through the tears… the sadness, and the pain. Like nothing before, the knives pierced and sliced his flesh with searing heat, every small flicker of a candle illuminating the alleyway in which they used to properly hit him. From common tools to the crudely fashioned branches, he was beaten in a flurry of blows, drunk or not, shinobi or citizen. For a boy like himself, it wasn't unheard of for Jinchuuriki to suffer, but he would one day end it. The hate would be stopped… and he would go to any length.

He clenched his eyes shut, and yet, tears continued to do as he didn't wish for, falling and hitting his chest, spilling upon the gravel paved ground. Hard, cold, unforgiving. That was the world.

He looked up to the tops of the buildings, he let himself sigh in relief, that the hours of their torturous methods of releasing their anger, their pent up emotions were gone. But there was one thing that refused to leave his brain. Why me?

What did he do to deserve all the hate of the village, to earn the merciless beating on his birthday, a day of his birth, the day that he…

"Sheesh… look at me. I should have gone home at a reasonable time… but I just had to be training for that bit of time longer." I just want people to recognize me… huh?

"Eep!" Ducking behind cover, a small girl, definitely close to his own age was behind the nearby dumpster. As she peeked around it, she tentatively walked towards him, staring him in the eyes with her own pupiless, brown- borderline green eyes. A mop of dark purple hair rested on her head, slightly framing her own dirt covered face.

"A-Are you okay?" Spitting out the last of the blood that had been in his mouth, he weakly smiled, giving her a small thumbs up as he rested his head on the ground.

"Not really but… it'll heal. Who are you?" Again, she backed a little, but took his arms in her own, struggling to help him to his feet.

"Anko… Anko Mitarashi. D-Don't mind me… why were they hurting you?" With a mirthful smile, he wrapped an arm around her shoulders to help support his larger frame- his broken leg was still in the process of healing, the last of his bones to mend due to the burning sensation he had felt flood his body after their tirade.

"I don't know… they just come after me on my birthday… and it hurts."

"I'm t-taking you to the H-Hokage… maybe he can help you out!" He was reminded again of his surrogate grandfather figure… seemingly the only person who could be bothered to care at all for his well-being… unless it was the man with the silver hair and Neko-chan. Why does she care about me at all?

"Why are you even helping me? Everyone around seems to think I would be better off dead…"

"Don't say that! You can be my friend from now on. Us orphans need to stick together! He didn't even need to argue that point. All orphans, everywhere they went trouble followed. She's like me…

"Th-Thanks…" They weren't that far from the red tower in which the Hokage worked- the main road led straight to it, after all. Ignoring the glares of hatred and miscellaneous items that were thrown their way didn't deter their determination. They would help each other regardless of who was there.

Soon enough, with the pace they made, they had arrived at the doors leading into the mansion, just in time to see in the Hokage, Sarutobi-jiji as he was affectionately dubbed by Naruto. Though as soon as he saw his leg- no longer mangled, but covered in harsh scars and wounds that were left to heal, he felt a spark of anger that addled the back of his mind.

"Naruto-kun… who did this to you? I swear if it was the villagers, I will personally-"

"Don't blame them for what they did… they don't know what they were doing… they don't know at all…" He looked down to the ground, his exhausted form falling to the ground, taking his new friend, Anko, with him. Dusting herself off, she tried pulling him up, but she was too tired to do anymore, and let the elderly Hokage take him into his arms.

"I won't stand for this… Naruto. As much as you don't want them to be punished, I won't let them hurt you any longer. You, young one… what is your name?" Staring up at him in shock, her body refused to move as she stuttered out her response.

"A-Anko… Mitarashi." Carrying him close to his chest, he took her hand, bringing her to her feet, and leading her along into the Hokage Tower, a small smile plastered to his wrinkled features.

"Thank you for bringing this young boy to me. He means a great deal to me, and anyone who is willing to help him is family to us both. Come with me, and I'll figure something out for you two. This needed to happen a long time ago. Waltzing through the front desk without a care, he ignored the grumbling of the young woman behind the desk, uncaring about her cleaning duties later that day.

"Jiji… what's going on?"

"Hush… Naruto-kun. I'm going to find someone to take care of you, once and for all, and call upon one of my students to come help you. Can you wait for a little longer?"

"Mhm… anything for jiji." He smiled, and whistled loudly once he had come outside the door of his office, having flawlessly used shunshin to transport the two into the room. Immediately to his call, two Anbu came to his call, one he recognized as Neko-chan and the other as Weasal, silently kneeling before their leader.

"I need you two to watch over Naruto so he doesn't get attacked again. The civilians, and from what I see, several shinobi have gotten much too bold, and this will cease. You are to continue this job until I say otherwise, no matter who he is with. Make this girl a priority of protection as well. We can't have his friends becoming targets due to affiliation with him. I will personally call two more to the office, one Kakashi Hatake and Jiraiya of the Sannin. I will not allow his only son to suffer for my mistakes, the council be damned!" Leaving the area via shunshin, he appeared not a second later outside the surrounding area, standing before a silver haired Jounin who had been content with munching on a sweet treat of dango…

"Naruto-kun, can you remember the ringleaders of the attack?" Scratching his head, he thought back to the attack, yet, all that came with was a throbbing pain that crashed in conundrum with the headache that had been plaguing his mind since entering the tower. Shaking his head, he looked down at the ground, a small frown set on his face as he tried in vain to bring any memories.

"Uh uh… there were too many… too many faces to remember. Sorry..." With a sigh, she removed her mask, earning a small glare from her current partner- they were supposed to remain anonymous during active duty.

"Listen. You have nothing to be sorry for, especially when a crowd of bigoted assholes come to knock around my favorite little blondie, okay?" Taking in his head, the purple haired woman reached over and kissed his forehead, rubbing his matted blonde hair with her hand, affectionately smiling towards the boy.

"But Yugao-taichou, during active duty-"

"Oh hush it Itachi, you can't be all stiff. You can interact with him if you like, he's a little ball of sunshine with a heart of gold." He blushed at her statement… unused to the praise, seeing as he never usually received that kind of treatment.

The person he recognized as Itachi hesitantly removed his mask, a small frown near permanently settled onto his face as his scanned his injuries or, more specifically, the abrasive scarring that had been set into the bottom of his right leg. Those weren't normal wounds- they had chakra left on them. Faint, but still reminiscent and fresh from the attack.

"Taichou. Look at the scar on his leg. That's not from any ordinary fire."

"A jutsu, then." Now that disturbed her- active duty ninja had targeted a small boy, no older than six years old to bash around out of spite.

"There are only a few ninja that could even think about doing this kind of thing to the poor boy. Goru, the man who had been stationed to protect him, had not been there to get him to safety?" Even the thought had brought an unsettling aura to the office, and Itachi's frown only deepened the more he thought about the situation. That could only mean one thing… the bastard…

"That son of a bitch!" She looked over to the teen, who was silently fuming, his sharingan spinning wildly as he sat next to the injured boy and his new friend. It was unheard of him to raise his voice, or even show any anger at all. Even Itachi is angered? This must have struck a chord in him…

"I feel the same way, but… all we can do is recover the chakra and have some tests run. Do you have your on-scene kit with you?" Unsealing a small black box from a storage seal located on his wrist, he placed it down, taking out a small vial and placing it onto the small table at the end of the couch. Withdrawing the bottle of water from said table, he poured it into a cup, and with a dull green glow surrounding his hands, he pressed it on top of the burn marks, withdrawing a liquified orb of glowing chakra no bigger than the tip of his finger that was trapped within a bubble of water from the bottle, and placed it inside the vial, closing it before too much of it could escape.

"Done. I'll get this to the T&I department to get this checked out." With a sigh of relief, she put her mask back on, fixing all of her uniform as she continued to look over the smaller blonde boy. After running her hands across his body for nearly five minutes, she patted him on his head, smiling beneath the mask she wore.

"You're all good as long as you heal up and rest, okay? And make sure that when all this stuff gets sorted out, you get a good meal in. Don't be afraid to ask the Hokage to make that happen, he will not let someone go hungry." Smiling brightly, he hugged her with his tiny arms, laughing as she tickled him around with her fingers. Switching over to Anko, who had been sitting quietly for the past thirty minutes, giggled as fingers invaded her personal space.

"And that includes you too, little girl!" She hiccupped and choked on her laughter as she tried in vain to stop the vicious assault, finding less and less oxygen to work with as it escaped from her parted lips.

Finishing her off, she was left in a huffing, sweating mess of left over laughs and giggles, tears staining her tattered shirt as she wiped her running nose. She blushed a bit as well, and looked away from the kind woman- she too hadn't gotten used to being treated like a normal human being either, similar to her newfound friend.

Not a minute later, the door clicked open, swinging wide to allow three recognizable figures to enter the room. The Hokage, who had been walking at the back, closed the door, placing a privacy seal onto the center of it, slumped into the chair behind his desk.

"Let's get down to business."

And that's it for the preview of the story! Tell me how this was, if it was acceptable or if it was unacceptable by all standards. Honestly, this story kind of excites me, because I always wondered about these two, since they are pretty similar in character in ways you might not expect. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed the story, and hopefully, the reviews will tell me if you want this continued!