Sadly I don not own Naruto. Oh well… but I can still play around with the plot.
If you haven't guessed by now, this will be, undoubtedly a NARUHINA fic, and I will not tolerate anyone telling me I'm wrong. Flames will constitute the largest Heretic burning in the history of the world.
Kohona Village, very Early in the morning, about six a.m. It was a few days before the genin exam at the school. It was raining hard. As one of the teachers, Kyuki, approached the school, she noticed a small form sleeping next to the wall of the school. Normally there wouldn't have been a reason for her to stop, there were beggars in Kohona, but normally they were adults, but this was a child… he looked so small.
The small figure moved, a fox tail wrapped around itself, and a pair of fox ears twitched. Kyuki gasped… it was Kitsune Naruto. Well… Normally it would be Uzumaki Naruto, but the villagers had petitioned the Hokage to remove his family name, and he had no choice but to do so. He did it privately, when it was normally a public shaming, but the Hokage had insisted and no one was going to get in his way. Those who knew the young boy were disappointed in the village, but there was nothing that they could do about it.
"Kitsune-chan…" she whispered, she and some one of the girls that saw him regularly called him that but no one else. The small figure whimpered and shrunk into the wall. If she had to guess the child was about four, maybe five… He was always at the school, though none of the teachers knew why he was there, he was supposed to be at an orphanage. "Naruto…" He whimpered again, and a sob escaped his throat.
"No…" he cried out. "N-No m-m-mo-ore! I di-didn't mean to… I-I'm s-s-sorry!"
The sight broke her heart. She got down on to her knees and held out her arms. "Kitsune-chan… I'm not going to hurt you…"
The child looked up at her, his eyes wide and hopeful. "You won't?" There was enough emotion in the voice to make anyone teary.
Kyuki shook her head and smiled at him, her arms still held out to embrace him. Slowly and shyly he crawled from his position against and moved to her. Once he was close enough for her to pull him closer, she did so, holding him against her. She cradled him in her arms, and he wrapped him small arms around her neck and buried his face in the crook of her neck. He was so small, not to mention the fact that she could feel every bone in his body.
She picked the small fox-child up and he wrapped him small legs around her mid section, trying to stay as close as possible to her. She held him just like she had done for her little brother when he was small enough for her to carry him. She entered the academy building and began walking briskly down the dark and quiet corridor, she heard voices, reminding her why she had to be there at that ungodly hour. There was a staff meeting scheduled to decide on what the potential genin were to be tested on.
She made a decision that would change the life of those at the meeting forever. She marched into the meeting still holding the kitsune in her arms. The harsh light in the room caused Naruto to whimper and burrow into her neck more. The conversation in the room stopped.
Silence.
Kakashi, a new jounin, barely looked at Kyuki then to the child in her arms. He paused, and looked closer at the kitsune. "Dear god…" he gasped. The other teachers stared at him, the son of "White Fang" was never shocked. "Is it… him?"
Kyuki nodded, her face grim.
Kakashi held out his arms, "C-Can I hold him?"
Everyone in the room was staring now. This was too unreal.
Slowly and carefully Kyuki transferred the scared child to Kakashi. Naruto looked confused for a few moments before burrowing into the warm arms that now held him, smiling slightly. Kakashi looked up at the others, "Where did you find him?"
"He was outside the door… From the dry spot he left behind, I'd say that he's been curled up there for quite a while." Said Kyuki softly, she didn't want to disturb Naruto, he looked so calm and there was a smile on his lips as Kakashi started to stroke his hair, and sure enough, in a few moments the kitsune was fast asleep.
Iruka, a chuunin, looked hard at the boy, then his gaze softened. "My family was killed by the Kyuubi, I feel like I want to hate him, and yet… It feels like… he should be my son… my wife died in childbirth… her and the baby."
There was silence that met this remark.
Another chuunin spoke up. "I don't get what you people are all uppity about. You're all fawning over a demon chi-" That chuunin was grabbed by several pairs of hands and was bodily thrown from the building, via a window.
Gai looked at all of them, he was smiling, which he never stopped doing.
The group had gone back to discussing the upcoming exam, that is until a young chuunin came dashing in as fast as he could run. Breathing hard he gasped "Message from the Hokage-sama."
As the chuunin collapsed, Iruka grabbed the note and read it aloud. "'I have just received news that Kitsune Naruto has been forcefully removed from the orphanage. Find him and report to me. Kakashi, Iruka, and Kyuki are ordered to accompany him.' …Well should we go now, or wait until the little one is more calm and relaxed."
The small snore that met their ears from Kakashi's lap, made them all smile. "I don't think he can be anymore relaxed that he is right now… Gai would you please run to the Hokage and tell him that he either has to come here or wait until morning to see Kitsune-chan."
"There is no need for that Kakashi…" came the voice of the third. "I am already here… Ah… I see that you've found the little one…"
"Yes… but Kyuki-san deserves the credit…" sighed Kakashi holding the child tighter to him. "She's the one that found him out in the rain."
"Yes well…" stuttered the Hokage. "What are we going to do with him; he's to young to live on his own."
Jiraiya came in through the window that the group of them had thrown the young chuunin through. "I can take him."
"Like hell you will" retorted Kyuki. "If he goes with you, he'll become a pervert like you."
An argument erupted from many of the jounin and the others in the room, all Naruto haters were forcibly ejected out the window. One hater was actually thrown out by the Hokage himself, but that's another story. The fighting escalated to a point were the jounin and chuunin were about to start using ninjitsu or genjitsu on each other. A lone voice cut through the arguments.
"I'll take him…"
I was Kakashi.
That shut everyone up.
No one even argued the point.
Not even the Hokage.
"Since there are no arguments I'll take my foster son and go…" and before anyone could stop him, Kakashi and the kitsune were gone in a puff of smoke.
"Well now…" said the Hokage after a few moments of a very awkward Silence. "Now that that's been settled, I'll just totter off… Oh my the way… Jiraiya?"
"Yah?"
"When's the next book of Icha Icha Paradise due out?"
"You lecher!" shouted Kyuki.
Elsewhere in Kohona…
Kakashi had arrived in his room, with the Kitsune child in his arms. Walking quietly, he took the child into his room and put him on his bed. Looking down at the boy, who the instant he touched the blankets he snuggled into them, he kissed the child's forehead. "I promised your mother that I'd look after you no mater what happens…" He walked out into his living room and puffed back over to the school, he may have just become a foster parent but there was still work to be done.
It had barely taken ten minutes to finish the negotiations and Kakashi had paid one bit of attention to any of it. After wards he pulled Kyuki aside.
"I need your help."
"Huh?"
"I need your help."
"I heard you the first time. I was just a bit shocked that you, of all people, would for help."
"I need help finding things for my little fox… I need to get him better clothes… Not to mention I don't have the kind of food that would be good for him…"
Kyuki normally would've enjoyed Kakashi squirm, but this was different, it involved Naruto. She grabbed a bit of paper and wrote furiously.
"What the-"
"Here. Meet me at the academy at eight in the morning tomorrow, I'll show you were to go and everything. No offence, but I don't trust you…" Kyuki said this all very fast as she handed him the paper, it was covered in writing. Names of stores and other things that looked like the exact things that Kakashi needed to know.
"Huh?"
"Get going! Do you want him to wake up with out you?"
Kakashi's one visible eye widened and he cursed, and he disappeared in another puff of smoke.
Back in Kakashi's Room
Kakashi arrived in a smaller puff of smoke than when he left.
He crept into his bed room to check on his charge. The kitsune was sleeping soundly. He was extremely emaciated and the shirt he was wearing a shirt that was so frayed and grayed that it was almost impossible to see the design on it.
Kakashi almost fainted.
It was the symbol of the Hyuuga clan…
Or more precisely it was the symbol of the heiress; Hyuuga hinta.
Where in the world had it come from?
He'd figure that out when the kid woke up.
Kakashi went into his living room and pulled a battered recliner from his college days into his bed room. Softly Kakashi went about his apartment grabbing a pillow off of the floor and a blanket from the closet. After grabbing what he needed to finish out what was left of the night, Kakashi settled into the chair, pulled out his favorite book, Come Come Paradise vol. 1, and began to read.
Hours later, the sun was streaming through the window, and Kakashi was staring in on volume five of the series when Naruto woke up.
He yawned a huge yawn, and he stretched much like a fox would just after it woke up. Kakashi thought that when he scratched behind his fox ears with his foot it was the cutest things he'd ever scene. 'Oh yeah… the girls are just going to love him' thought the masked jounin. He looked around the room, and shrank away from Kakashi.
Kakashi looked surprised as the child shrank away from him, then he laughed a great booming, heartfelt laugh.
Naruto cocked his head at him, oh there was a lot of Kyuubi in him.
"Kitsune-chan…" gasped Kakashi through the remainder of his laughing, he had fallen off of the chair had had rolled about on the floor. Naruto had no idea what was so funny. "Sorry Naruto." He picked himself up off of the ground, and peeked over the edge of the bed to look at the top of the bed where Naruto was. The child was staring at him; there was no fear on his face, no emotion at all. Well nothing was a good way to start.
"Who are you?" the kid asked. There was no malice in his voice, just curiosity.
"I am the great Kakashi… And I have the great honor of… um… well… I guess I get to be your big brother… That is if you want one, otherwise-" But before he could finish Naruto had jumped at him and had his arms and legs wrapped around his torso knocking him to the floor.
He looked up into the man's eye; there was hope in his amazingly blue eyes. "Anichan (1)?"
Kakashi smiled, or at least Naruto thought he did, you never could tell with that stupid mask. "I like it."
Naruto's grin just widened.
After a few more minuets of Naruto attempting to break his ribs, Kakashi looked up at his clock, one of those cheesy ones that shaped like cat with the moving tail and eyes, it was nearly eight. "Well now, Naru-"
"Kitsune-chan."
Kakashi smiled through his mask, there were few people whom Naruto allowed 'Kitsune-chan.' "Okay Kitsune-chan… We've got to go… Kyuki's meeting us to take you shopping and we have a meeting with the Hokage. I don't know much about kids, so she'll be helping…"
The joy on Naruto's face faded, just a bit, and he got off of Kakashi's chest. As soon as his charge was off of his chest, Kakashi jumped to his feet. The Kitsune barely reached his waist with the tips of his fox ears.
Naruto was staring at his bloody bare feet.
Kakashi swept the boy off of his feet and placed him on his shoulders all the while thinking 'And I'll ask the Hokage about a doctor appointment,' and before the fox-child say anything Kakashi walked out of the apartment and on to the street. To the people who were either new to the village or visiting the village the two of them looked like Father and son or big and little brothers.
Luckily for Naruto, he was with Kakashi; the villagers were feeling particularly cruel today. Some of the men had rocks in their hands, and one or two of the women stood in their doorways, arms crossed, holding either a wok or a rolling pin. Naruto, fearing bodily harm, wrapped his tail around Kakashi's neck, although not tight enough to choke his anichan
Naruto had a death grip on Kakashi's head as the two of them walked through village. Kakashi took note of the villagers hate filled expressions and the few and far between that had either pity or kindness in them. It gave him hope that there were those willing to at least meet him and maybe give a chance.
It didn't take the two of them long to reach the Hokage tower, the meeting with the Hokage was first. The old man had a soft spot in his heart for the fox child and there was almost nothing that he wouldn't do for the child. As the two of them entered the office that the current Hokage used, they met two others in the room.
"Oh…" said Kakashi. "Sorry Hokage-sama. We didn't know you had other guests, we'll wait for you to be done outside…" As Kakashi made to close the door, Naruto leapt off of his shoulders and ran into the room.
"Okasa-san!" Yelled the kitsune. Rushing up to the older woman in the room.
"Oh! Kitsune-chan!" she picked up the child and placed him on her lap, hugging him. "Where have you been? We were so worried when you didn't show up to escort Hinta-chan to the playground today."
Kakashi was staring, dumbfounded. Here was one of the leading families in the village and the heiress and the female head in the family, treating him like one of their own children. 'So that's how he got that shirt…'
"Come on in Kakashi, these two are here to help decide were Kitsune-chan is going to go when you have an extended mission."
"No question… He will come and stay with us in the Hyuuga house." Said Mrs. Hyuuga.
""But-" started the Hokage and Kakashi in unison.
"My husband will have nothing to do with it, it is MY home and I do run everything inside of it."
The adults in the room were staring at her, their eyes wide. She was speaking so adamantly about taking in Naruto when others in the village would've gladly killed him as soon as or rather than look at him.
"So I get to stay with you when anichan is away on a mission?" asked Naruto from the lap of Mrs. Hyuuga.
"Of course you can." Replied the woman, looking fondly at fox-child. She looked up and mouthed "Anichan?" to Kakashi who just shrugged.
"Yay!" shouted two young voices in complete unison. Everyone, but Naruto, had forgotten that Hinta was even in the room. Naruto got off his "okasa-san" and ran to Hinta and pulled her into a hug, she didn't even blush.
Kakashi looked down at his watch and gasped. "Kitsune-chan… we've got to go. Kyuki-san will be waiting! Sorry about leaving like this, but I need to take my little fox kit out to shop for new clothing…" he was about to say visit the doctor but as he looked at his 'little brother's' feet, which weren't bloody or bleeding at all anymore.
"Shopping without us? Never. We'll come along and help ensure that you pay fair prices and help pay for everything. After everything he's done for Hinta-chan we have to help."
Kakashi just stared at the Hyuuga woman with a wide eye. The young mother just laughed at him and grabbed his arm and pulled him along as Naruto pulled Hinta along after him and out the door. But as the four of them go closer to the door that led to the outside, Naruto's pace slowed and eventually he ran to get behind Kakashi'd legs. The Jounin looked at the two Hyuugas and grinned apologetically as he lifted the fox child onto his shoulders, and Naruto resumed his death grip on his big brother's head.
Once Naruto was ready and death grip in place the four of them walked out into the sunshine of the day… And right into a very angry Kyuki.
"Where the he-… uh… heck have you been!" she ranted as she approached to them, she was pissed. "I've been waiting for an hour. I know that you're normally late for everything but I assumed that you'd actually be one time when it came to Kitsune-chan!"
Kyuki would continued ranting but the older Hyuuga stopped him. "I am sorry, Kyuki-sensei, but it is out fault that they are late. I refused to let the two of them leave without us. I wanted to help pay for everything and also take you to some very special shops that will take cater to him."
Kyuki just stared at the woman. Her eyes were the size of dinner plates. "S-sorry ma'am. If you don't mind could you please tell me your name?"
"Why of course. My name is Hyuuga Hiroshi." If Kyuki wasn't dumbstruck before, she sure as hell was now. Here was the leading female in all of Kohona, and she was helping the lowest of lows (in the eyes of the villagers not her) with her personal finances.
"Let's go!" shouted Naruto, completely ignorant of the conversation going on between them.
Sadly, because of his outburst, some idiot threw a rock at him and it hit him. Knocking him off of his big brother's shoulders. Kakashi, Kyuki, Hiroshi, and Hinta never saw the rock, but before they could act, four members of the ANBU squad descended on the perpetrator and drug him off. After seeing the ANBU come out of their hiding place, Kakashi moved to his charge.
Naruto was holding the back of his head and crying softly. "Ow…" he whispered. Kakashi knew that most children his age would've carried on and on about receiving wound like that, but the way that he was being so quiet made him very worried.
"Come now Kitsune-chan…" cooed Kakashi kneeling down to his level. "Do you still want to go through with today?"
The small boy nodded, but didn't say anything. That troubled Kakashi even more than the fact that Naruto wasn't crying. Kakashi picked the boy up and placed him on his shoulders again, but this time, Kyuki was behind the two of them.
The actual shopping was the least amount of trouble they had the entire time. The combination of two of the Hyuuga clan, and two jounin kept the shop keepers tongues and actions in line. By the end of the expedition, Naruto had an entire new wardrobe, and even a few kunai, given to him by a kind gentle man from the Hidden-Village of Snow who knew nothing of Naruto. The interesting thing about all the clothing is that Naruto insisted that the insignia on his shirt, also the symbol of Hyuuga Hinta, embroidered on all of his new clothing, which consisted of orange pants and black shirts and one matching orange jacket. All of that in addition to the food and other items that they had had delivered to Kakashi's apartment.
It was well into the evening by the time all the shopping was done. "Well…" sighed Hiroshi, holding a sleeping Hinta. "I hope to see you tomorrow Kitsune-chan."
"Good night Okasa-san…" whispered Naruto, the light from the day's events was gone, he seemed smaller than normal and he was hiding behind Kakashi's legs. The three adults in the group all locked eyes, there was shock in their eyes. Naruto, although quiet at some times was usually loud and happy, this new Naruto was something that they had never seen before.
Kakashi took his hand and pulled him in front of him so that he could lift the small boy onto his shoulders once again. The adults bid their final farewells to each other and to Naruto, and Kakashi 'poofed' away from the others with Naruto and the kid's new clothes. Hiroshi and Kyuki bid each other goodnight and the two of them left for their respective homes.
BACK IN KAKASHI'S APARTMENT
After arriving Kakashi set Naruto on his bed, his apartment only had a bedroom and a kitchen with a small hallway connecting the two of them that also led to the door. "Stay put for a second…" sighed the jounin, "I'm going to go make us some tea and then the two of us are going to have a conversation."
Naruto just nodded, but didn't say anything, he looked more scared than Kakashi had ever seen him.
Kakashi went into the kitchen and shot a kettle of water with some chakra to cause it to boil almost instantly. Tea was even quicker to make, and he poured it into two chipped mugs, and went straight into his bedroom. He sighed upon entering, there was his little brother curled up into a little ball, shaking, and whimpering. He set the tea down on his dresser, and sat next to Naruto. "Kitsune-chan…" he whispered. "Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you… Come now, drink your tea…"
Naruto looked up from his ball, the fear was once again gone, and there was the broken little boy that he had seen, albeit briefly, the previous night. "I don't want to go back… I don't want to leave… Don- make me leave…P-please anichan d-don- make me go 'way."
Kakashi just smiled, and pulled the small child close and wrapped an arm around him and began to stroke his back. "Sh-sh-sh-shh…" he cooed. "I don't want you to leave… I want you to stay for as long as you want…"
Naruto looked up at Kakashi, there were tears streaming down his face. "R-really?"
"Of course."
Naruto smiled and burrowed into his big brother's chest, effectively knocking Kakashi over onto his back. The two of them rolled about, Kakashi finding out that his little fox was extremely ticklish, their tea completely forgotten and grew cold. Eventually the two of them fell asleep, Naruto's head pillowed on Kakashi's chest.
Author's Notes
Well that's the beginning…
I Hope you liked it better than others have enjoyed my Harry Potter fics. Today I learned a valuable lesson in writing, you absolutely cannot please everyone, and there will always be that one person(s) who will hate your writing. I am referring to (person shall remain nameless), a person who simply hate all of writing just because he/she sees me as a "2bit hack" who cannot do anything but steal the ideas of other authors and tweak my favorite characters so that they can do no wrong. I won't get into anymore bitching so review me if you have any ideas, if they're good I might use them, and of course I'll give you credit.
Cheers
Aengus