Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

Chapter 4- An Angel to guide me

Naruto slowly walked down the streets of Konoha. About 10 minutes ago, someone had come by his apartment and had told him that The Hokage wanted to see him. After getting dressed, he proceeded to walk to Jiji's office.

He was curious as to why Jiji wanted to see him. If he had something he wanted to talk about, why hadn't he talked with him about it last night? Well, that didn't matter much. When the messenger had come, Naruto had been bored out of his mind and had welcomed the opportunity to do something.

His eyes wondered over his surroundings. He was in the middle of the merchant's district right now. Carts full of food and interesting trinkets cluttered the sides of the road. Crowds of people spread out among them, spending their hard earned cash on various things.

As he walked, some of the venders gave him the same looks, or more specifically, gave him the lack of stares. He felt the loneliness rising. But along with that, he felt something else rising. Anger.

He hated them. Was there a reason he shouldn't? They made him feel something that shouldn't be wished on anyone. He didn't even know why they seemed to hate him. He had done nothing wrong!

'All of you people,' Naruto thought darkly. 'I'll show you all someday. Someday, I'll be so great, it'll be impossible to ignore me. When that day comes….' A dark menacing expression stretched across his face. Several people in the crowd, both of those who knew and did not know what he was flinched, backing away from the child. Even if you did not know what Naruto was, it was still extremely disturbing to see such an expression on a child's face.

'You will all regret looking at me like that.'

"Naruto?"

Brought out of his thoughts by this unfamiliar voice, Naruto looked up to see the source of the voice. It was an ANBU, though not one he was sure he had seen before. Of course with their masks, he couldn't be sure. This ANBU wore the standard armor, like most of the ones Naruto had met. The mask that hid their face had the face of a cat. The voice was a woman's.

"Naruto?" The ANBU repeated. Did she not know who he was? He slowly nodded. The ANBU was silent for a second, just looking at him. He couldn't see her eyes but he knew she was staring at him. He shifted uncomfortably. It was funny when you think about it. He hated it when he was ignored by people yet now that someone seemed to be paying attention, he was uncomfortable.

"The Hokage asked me to let you know that he is in the middle of an unexpected but no less important meeting. He asks that you wait a half hour before coming to his office." The ANBU spoke. "I will be coming to get you when he is ready, alright?"

Naruto nodded, and the ANBU jumped up to the rooftops and disappeared. Leaving Naruto alone. He stood there for a moment, unsure of what to do with himself. He started walking back to his apartment. That ANBU had told him that she would come and get him when it was time to meet with Jiji.

As he walked, he found himself wondering what it was that could have happened to delay Jiji. This wasn't the first time that he could see Jiji because of a meeting, but this didn't happen often.

He allowed his eyes to take in the sights. While he had lived in this village all his life, it was still interesting to take in every sight that the village had to offer. After all, he was a child, so everything was fascinating to him.

His eyes eventually wondered over to an abandoned alley. He froze. He wasn't sure why, but when he looked at it, he felt something. Fear. He was afraid of the alley. He started shaking. What was so frightening about the alley? He had been in there half a dozen times. There was nothing scary in there.

Yet now… He couldn't explain it. He was terrified. He ran from that place, back to his apartment. Slamming and locking the door, he breathed heavily. The fear and panic faded from his mind. But he could still feel it in the back of his mind.

'Why am I so scared?' He thought. He hugged his chest, trying to permantly forget that feeling. Compared to the fear that he had just felt, he would willingly face the loneliness that he experienced whenever he walked the village. Anything just to never face that fear again.

"I realize that, Sarutobi, but I don't think that you're really listening to me!"

Hiruzen could feel himself slowly aging. This conversation was heading nowhere. As soon as it seemed that they would be able to finish the conversation, Homura would find another point and begin the conversation anew.

Hiruzen was at the current moment talking to the Konoha elders, Homura Mitokado and Koharu Utatane. Homura was a man in his mid sixties. Despite being a year older then Hiruzen, his face had less wrinkles, but there were still some. All and all, he had aged well, looking slightly younger then he was. He had gray hair, slicked back. On his chin was a small beard. He wore round green glasses on his face. As for his attire, he wore a long sleeved, pale yellow coat that went down to his waist. It was an open coat so one could see the blue clothes he wore underneath. He also wore a white cloak that covered his neck and shoulders.

Koharu Utatane the other member of the elders was a woman, roughly the same age as Homura, though age had not been as kind to her. She still looked younger then Hiruzen however. Her light grayish hair was pulled back into two buns at the top of her head. A long, golden needle impaled the two buns and was decorated with various jewelry. Her ears were pierced with earrings. He clothes were similar to Homura, but her clothes were more in the style of a kimono. Her coat was a dark shade of gray. The kimono that she wore was a pale shade of pink. A white cloth was draped across her shoulders.

At the current moment, the three of them were discussing the assignment of Itachi as Naruto's bodyguard. They were not happy that "one of the best ANBU the village had" was being assigned to guard a seven year old boy, when there were more important missions to be handled. After all, there weren't a lot of shinobi in the village with the skills to take on S- ranked jobs, and assigning one of the few capable of doing these to guard duty stood out as a mistake. Plus there was Itachi's special assignment…

"I have been listening to you Homura, and I will continue to listen to what you have to say, but I stand by my decision." Hiruzen said.

"Are you sure you're listening to me?" Homura responded. "Because if you were you were, you might very well be reconsidering this foolishness."

"You dare-" Hiruzen stood up looking his old teammate in the eye.

"Please you two!" Koharu interrupted the two before it could become a full blown argument. "What Homura is trying to say, Sarutobi, is that surly there are better ANBU for this."

Hiruzen sat back down, looking at his other old teammate. "Perhaps there is. But I think Itachi is best suited for this task."

"Sarutobi." Koharu addressed him. "It isn't that we're trying to place pressure on you, but Itachi's attention should be focused on the Uchiha clan."

Homura spoke, contributing to the conversation. "If they are planning something as we suspect, shouldn't we be- "

"I am well aware of the risk involved in assigning him to this job. He'll have less time to focus on the Uchiha's but I have already made my final decision." Hiruzen saw his old teammates about to begin again and decided to end this while he had a chance. "Now if you two will please excuse me, I have things to attend to. Could you two please leave?"

Both elders nodded, bowed respectfully, and left the Hokage. This would not be the last the Hiruzen would hear of this, but for now, they would build their case. Perhaps they would pay a visit to another elder of the village, Danzo.

Once the two had left, Hiruzen rubbed his face in his hands. Sometimes the job of Hokage could be extremely stressful. After a minute, he summoned the ANBU he had sent to tell Naruto of his meeting. "Could you please go pick up Naruto?"

"Of course Lord Hokage. But before I do, there's something I should probably tell you." She said.

Raising an eyebrow, Hiruzen asked, "What about?"

"Well, you see… When I went to give Naruto the message, he had this look on his face."

"A look on his face? Explain."

"It was … I can't really say what it was. But I can tell you that he was unconionsly releasing a small amount of Killer Intent." Hiruzen leaned forward, his attention fully drawn. "It was only a tiny amount. Not enough to be felt, by anyone who wasn't looking for it, but the fact that he was unconsciously drawing it out is…concerning to say the least."

Hiruzen stayed silent for a moment. This could mean any number of things. Each seemed more unlikely than the last. The only thing that they could determine from this was that he hated something. The villagers, maybe? He shoke his head. It was pointless to think of these things. Once he knew more, he would decide what to do.

"Thank you for informing me of this." The ANBU bowed her head. "Now, would you please go get Naruto?" Without another word, The ANBU left for Naruto's house.

Naruto sat on the floor of his apartment. He no longer felt the fear that he had felt when he had looked at that empty alleyway. He had managed to calm himself down, though it had not been easy. And in truth, the fear wasn't completely gone. When he really concentrated, he could still feel it in the back of his mind.

He was still trying to figure out why the alleyway had scared him so much. He had been in several alleyways before. They weren't as scary as he had heard some of the other children say. Yet when he looked at, he started to hurt all over. When he looked at the places that hurt however, there was nothing there. No marks, no cuts, nothing. A stray thought popped into his head suddenly.

'Why was I in the hospital?'

A knock at the door brought him out of his thoughts. Walking to the door, he opened it. It was the woman ANBU that he had met earlier. Had it been half hour already? He hadn't been keeping track of the time when he was calming down.

"Naruto, I'm here to bring you to the Hokage. He's ready to see you now." She said. She held out her hand. "Give me your hand. I'll Flicker us there"

Naruto understood what she was talking about. She wanted to use a body flicker to get to Jiji's office. It was a common technique among shinobi. It involved moving at extremely high speeds from one place to another. To civilians, it would seem as though shinobi teleported.

Naruto extended his hand his hand and grasped the ANBU's hand. She in turn held it tightly though not enough to hurt. "Okay, take a deep breath. This might feel a little weird."

Naruto took a deep breath. Suddenly the both of them were swallowed up by smoke. Naruto for a few seconds felt like he was being spun very fast. After a few more seconds, the ANBU and Naruto were standing just outside Hiruzen's office.

Naruto felt the ANBU's hand let go. Unfortunately, he was so dizzy from the experience, he fell swiftly on the floor. The ANBU knelt next to him, examining him. "Are you okay?"

Naruto looked at her with a smile on his face. That whole thing had been really fun. "Can we do that again?" He exclaimed.

The ANBU looked at him for a few seconds before laughing. "Sorry Naruto. Maybe next time." She helped him up and led him into the Hokage's office.

There sitting behind his desk was Hiruzen. But sitting in a chair was someone he had never seen before. But before he could get a better look at the person, Hiruzen spoke up. "Ah, Naruto. Come in."

Naruto walked over to the desk and sat down at another chair right next to the strange person. He looked over at the person, who was also looking at Naruto. He looked like a teenager, except that he was wearing ANBU armor.

"Naruto, this is Itachi Uchiha. For the next month or so, he's going to be accompanying you wherever you go." Hiruzen stated.

Naruto frowned, looking over at this Itachi person. He then looked back at Jiji. "Why? Am I in trouble Jiji?"

"Not at all, Naruto." Not wanting to get into the specifics of why Naruto suddenly needed a bodyguard he decide to say what would make almost any seven year old stop asking questions. Stroke their egos. "You're an important part of this village and we don't want anything to happen to you." Hiruzen said, putting on a grandfatherly smile.

Normally, this sort of thing would have worked on Naruto, but after his reaction to the alleyway, it only got him more suspicious. Why did he suddenly need protecting? "Jiji, did something happen to me?"

Hiruzen kept up his face, though on the inside he was worried. Naruto seemed especially suspicious of this whole thing. Did that mean that he was starting to remember what had happened the previous day? Deciding to show a little honesty about the situation, he began to tell a little half lie.

"Naruto, we've had some tense few months of negotiating with some of the less friendly villages. We're just worried that one of them may try something. So I'm assigning Itachi here," He motioned at Itachi. "To keep an eye on you to make sure they don't try to go after you."

Naruto was still sort of suspicious, but accepted the explanation. But he wondered why he was so important when the villagers seemed to hate him.

"Alright, Jiji." Hiruzen smiled but knew that he would have to be more careful about what he said with Naruto. "If it makes you happy, this guy can follow me around all he wants."

"Thank you Naruto." Hiruzen then turned to Itachi and said. "Why don't you have some lunch and get to know Naruto here."

"Very well Lord Hokage." Itachi stated in his cold voice that made Naruto visibly flinch.

As they both walked out of the office, Hiruzen could only wonder what would happen between these two polar opposites.