"Oh so this is what you do when the poor Gaki's not looking." The young woman spoke up from the roof of a nearby roof, looking down at the group of people with weapons of all sorts. She didn't know at first why they were grouped up when that had chased a boy that had passed her not five minutes ago. When she had caught up to the group in question, she only had to look at the boy for a slip second before figuring out why they were after him. His body now was covered in his own blood and various bruises were scattered all over his body as he lay down half conscious in the center of a group of men and woman, all angry at him for the beast inside of him.

The group had taken a small step away from the boy as they had heard an unmistakable voice, one that filled with determination to protect the boy, as well as venom for the villagers who were attacking them this night. It wasn't an uncommon thing for the blond haired boy to be chased and beaten, but today was by far the worst of them. It wasn't just clenched fists and kicks, but weapons as well, mainly kunai and shuriken. Many people's grips on their weapons had tightened with fear as they looked up, seeing a large trench coat flapping in the wind gently. Her purple, spiky, pineapple-like hair was sitting atop her head as it usually did.

The group's eyes widened in fear as they fully recognized who was calling them out, and although they were afraid, some of them weren't going to show it. "We don't have business with you, Snake whore!" He spat out, rewarded with a piercing glare from the woman on the roof. "We just want the demon brat!"

She knew what it felt like to have the whole village against you, to have them hate you and treat you lower than dirt just because of association. It wasn't exactly the same case with the boy who had just been beaten senseless, but there were enough similarities between the two to make her go out of her way and stand up for him for the day. "The Name," She said fiercely, unleashing all of her killing intent towards the group that had attacked the boy. "is Anko. Mitarishi. You forget it, and I'll have my snakes come after you." Her usual cockyness wasn't there, and was replaced by sheer determination to make sure that they boy's life would get better in some way after this.

She knew his burden, his tenant, and she knew that his life was pretty bad for being known solely as 'the demon brat'. She didn't want for him to go insane like the others, and since he held the most powerful of all nine, the damage from such a rampage would be pretty devastating. The stupidity of the villagers had made them believe that the bay was simply the demon inside of him, and not his jailer. They all wanted revenge on him for one reason or another, but they fail to see that killing him will do absolutely nothing. The demon will regenerate in time and come back, punishing the village known as Konohagakure, or simply Konoha, for causing him so much trouble

As the silence had slowly passed, the villagers were becoming more and more scared of her. It was her specialty after all, and the was one of the best in the Torture and Interrogation department, surpassed only by Ibiki Morino, who almost treated Anko like a daughter when nobody is around. "W-we're not afraid of you, Snak-" The man's words were interrupted by a kunai lodging itself inside of his throat, his body flying to the side and laying dead as he came in contact with ground. Anko smirked and jumped up into the air, landing just in front of the Boy who she had been protecting. He was barely hanging onto life, but he was able to see everything going on around him. He couldn't move, much less speak, and simply lay there as the woman practically landed on top of him. The sudden landing had scared the villagers back a few more steps and her smirk had turned crazed.

"What did I just tell you all? I may not have used my snakes that time, but it doesn't mean I won't kill you." She said in her usual cocky attitude, walking slowly over to the man who she had just killed and ripped her kunai from his throat, turning to the villagers and licking the blood from it so that the throwing dagger was clean. She had certain methods to scare the villagers, and by far that was one of her favorites just by how badly it scared everyone. "Now you better get going before ANBU shows up and you all end up like that guy." She said, pointing to the dead man that she had killed only seconds before.

It didn't take long for the villagers to scatter from the alleyway, leaving just Anko, the boy, and the dead body. Her head snapped up to one of the darker shadows, and she narrowed her eyes, inspecting it closely. "Alright dog-face, Neko why don't you tell me why you didn't swoop in and save the Gaki? Hell, I bet he'd like to know just as much as me." The ANBU with the dog mask sweatdropped as his nickname was mentioned. It wasn't only Anko who used it, but also the boy when he would occasionally see him. The one in the cat mask was forced to hold back a giggle as they both appeared from the shadows in front of the woman and the now unconscious boy. 'Inu' had taken note of his current state and the pool of blood around him as well, his mask tilting downward to look at the boy, then back up to meet Anko's eyes.

"I'll tell you later, but you should get Naruto to the hospital. The fox doesn't seem to be cooperating this time." Inu spoke up, glancing at the boy once more to bring Anko's attention to him. Anko turned around and looked down at the boy, seeing the pool of blood surrounding him and going right through his clothes. 'damnit, I don't think he'll be happy about hearing his clothes are covered in his own blood.' She thought to herself in a light tone, trying to lighten up the mood just a bit. Her head turned back to the two ANBU and nodded to them, silently telling them to meet at the hospital. In the case that they weren't looking or just didn't understand, she said it aloud. "I'll meet you at the hospital with the gaki, just get him a room and get the doctors ready." The two nodded and shushined away, leaving a small trail of leaves where they once stood. Anko had a matter to take care of first before the hospital, and slowly picked up the unconscious boy in her arms. He couldn't be more than 6 at the time, since she had just quick thoughts in her head about when the Kibuuyi attacked. She was right, almost six years ago the demon fox had attacked, and was eventually sealed inside the boy in her arms.

She didn't really care if her trench coat got messy or not, since she had a complete closet filled with many more just like it. She jumped up into the air and landed on the roof once more, running at full speed to the Hokage tower.

The Hokage sat quietly at his desk as he dealt with his lifelong adversary, eternal rival, and opponent, paperwork. Even when he was younger and during his initial run as the Hokage, he hated having to do all of the paperwork that was required for the position. More than once he had asked how his processor, the Yondaime, had been able to do all of this work and still manage to have the time to live happily with his wife. The question baffled him, but all thoughts were halted as the doors were blown open with Anko holding the young, bleeding, and unconscious boy in her arms. His eyebrows narrowed as he took in the sight. It had been one of the very few times that Anko had actually looked concerned about someone that wasn't herself, and he only had to guess about what had happened.

"The villagers have attacked Naruto-Kun once more, it seems. It surely won't be the last, but it does seem different." Sarutobi, the Sandime Hokage spoke up, pausing from his late-night work and looking at the two of them. Anko nodded and glanced down at Naruto, who was in a state of deep sleep from the looks of it. "The fox isn't healing his wounds like usual, so I had Neko and Dog-Face go and get a room for him so the doctors could patch him up." Sarutobi sat there quietly for a moment and looked at Naruto, his surrogate grandson and the spitting image of the old Hokage's predecessor. He looked up at Anko who had still seemed to be worried about him. "Well, why are you here then? Having him here will do no good, Anko. We will speak once the hospital starts taking care of him." She knew that she couldn't say anything to make him talk to her now, so she simply complied with a nod and left the room, heading back outside in the dead of the night to the hospital which was only a short distance away.

Anko dashed out of the Hokage's tower and stayed on the ground this time rather than jumping onto the rooftops, weaving through the streets while keeping Naruto in her arms. She could feel his blood seeping through her jacket, but she didn't have any time to worry about it. She ran into the doors of the hospital where Inu and Neko were standing with a few doctors, some of them having a slight discomfort with having to patch up the 'demon child'. One of the doctors simply motioned for them to follow him and the other doctors into the room. As reluctant as they were about treating Naruto, the ANBU made sure that they would give their full attention to the boy and care for him until he returns to his usual state. They had simply told the doctors that "Anko would be happy to help them with getting more jobs for the hospital", silently telling them that she'd kill them all off if they didn't comply.

Reaching the operation room, one of the doctors took Naruto out or Anko's hand, much to her disliking. One of them even pushed her out of the room as soon as Naruto was in the other doctor's arms. The door to the room was shut in her face as all of the doctors scrambled into the room. She was mad that they weren't going to let her see the operation, but inside she knew that it was for the best. Sigh a small sigh, the Snake Mistress turned to the two ANBU and looked at them with as calm of a face as he could have at the moment. "Alright, now tell me why you didn't go in and save the Gaki as soon as he was stabbed. I think that something like that should tell you that they mean to harm him!"

Her voice rose as she continued, inwardly unsure why she was stressing so much over the six year old child. With a demon inside of him, he could probably protect himself by using its power, but he wasn't. And said demon wasn't even bothering with keeping its container alive. She paused with a curious look, and spoke up once more before either of the ANBU could. "He doesn't know. Does he?" She asked them, causing both masked ninja to shake their heads at the soon to be jonin. She sighed once more and thought more on the subject.

Of course he didn't know. He was only six, he didn't go to school, and he didn't have anyone tell him about the Kyūbi, as were the Hokage's orders. He didn't know why he was being attacked constantly, and only knew that just about everyone in the village, save for a few people, hated him and his very existence.

"I'm going home." She told the two, sighing deeply and walking away. "Go and get me when the Gaki wakes up." She knew that she could simply Shushin away, but she just wanted to walk right now, and she was perfectly fine with that.

Walking back to her home on the edge of the village, she tried her hardest, but couldn't stop thinking about one person.

Naruto.

She hadn't even truly spoken to him, and yet she was all he could think about. He had endured a similar pain to her, but she knew that his pain would be much worse than hers. When she was younger, she actually had people that she cared about, but now she didn't as most people hated her for being associated with that Snake Bastard. He however, never really knew people that loved him for him. Sure the Ichirakus loved Naruto, and they did care about him, but they probably wouldn't be like that if he wasn't there almost every day eating ramen by the bucket. Other than the Hokage, those were the only two people that she knew of who actually treated Naruto like a human being. She could count herself onto the list, but this was the first time that she had actually interacted with him.

He was probably the only person that she ever felt bad for, and it was driving her crazy. She just wanted to think about something else, but she just couldn't. While she hadn't ever directly interacted with him, she had seen the boy around the village a few times with that impossibly bright smile on his face. His emotions seemed to be infectious, as when he smiled, a few others smiled around him without knowing it, and when he was in pain, others suddenly felt the same

Anko groaned heavily as she stopped and turned around. The hospital, along with the academy, were connected to the Hokage's tower, and that was where she was going. While she couldn't just make the village stop beating him up, she could at least do her damn best to make sure that he could protect himself when the villagers formed a mob, and that would take some time.

Reaching the office to the Hokage, Anko opened up the door to find that the God of Shinobi was still at his desk, sighing papers. What she didn't know was that he was watching her on her way back to her home with the use of his crystal ball. "Anko. Is there something else that we need to talk about tonight?" He asked her, already having a good idea of what she was here for.

Anko nodded at the Hokage and looked at him calmly. His light smile and calm demeanor told her everything that she wanted to know at the moment. She knew that Hiruzen was extremely pissed off on the inside, but wouldn't show it. He was angered at the village for treating Naruto they way that they have been, and right now it only took one small step in the wrong direction to bring on his wrath. "Yes, Hokage-sama." She said back to him, thinking her thoughts over again to make sure that she would be making the right decision. "I want to become Naruto's guardian."

Tada! A new story that I've been thinking about for a while.

While I am going to be Pairing up Naruto with someone later on, I have no idea who it will be. I'm always up for odd and crazy pairings, and although I'm fully up for some NaruAnko, that isn't what this story is about... completely.

I'm making Anko a bit older for this, to when he becomes a genin, at age 12, she'll be in her mid twenties, twenty seven is what I'm thinking now, which will make her twenty one right now at this point in the story. She's going to be a parent figure in this, and that's how it's going to be.

Rate and Review everyone!

Till next time!