A/N: I freaking rewrote this three times! Three! Thankfully, most of what I tried the first two times can be mixed up and used later on. Also? Using my natural Canadian spelling now. If you see weird looking 'z's or more 'u's than you're used to, don't worry about it, you're just being cultured.
Chapter Summery: Naruto doesn't like how Jiji talks about Hari-chan. But Anko-chan is as awesome as ever!
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"Now, Naruto-kun, I thought that we talked about Hari-san," Old Man Sarutobi looked down his nose, over his reading glasses at Naruto and Naruto squinted back up at him.
"We did," Naruto muttered, "But Hari-chan is so totally awesome." Hari-chan was awesome in Naruto's mind. Hari-chan loved him and hugged him and encouraged him. Talked to him, and listened to him. It wasn't that no one else did that because Kaka-nii and Ibiki-ji and Anko-chan (she had told him that she'd wack him one if he called her 'ba-chan'. Naruto wasn't sure what she was gonna wack him with, but he didn't want that, and thus dropped the 'ba') and even Inoichi-oji listened to him when he wanted to talk, and though Sasuke always wanted to talk through him to his parents, Naruto, as Senkensha, was forming some kind of personal relationship with the other boy. It was Hari-chan that was his and all his and he didn't have to share Hari-chan with anyone.
Not that it was going well in the academy anyway. Sasuke was as douchebaggish as ever to Naruto. That was actually the problem that Jiji was talking about.
"I know that you think that Hari-san has the best in mind for you, Naruto-kun, but telling Sasuke who you are under the mask isn't going to help you make friends with the boy." Jiji leaned back in his chair and Naruto pouted, crossing his arms over his chest.
Trying to be contrary because he didn't like how Sarutobi was talking about his very first and very best friend, Naruto lifted his lip in a sneering curl, "Maybe I don't wanna tell Sasuke-teme to be friends with him. Maybe I'm tryin' ta think about your ANBU and make it so's they don't gotta go back and forth between me and Sasuke," Naruto huffed, "Didja thinka that, Jiji?"
The air in the room suddenly changed and Naruto's eyes widened a little. Old Man Sarutobi straightened up and his eyes flashed, "Do not take that tone with me, Naruto." His voice was stern and Naruto licked his dry lips. Old Man Sarutobi took a deep breath and then relaxed back into his chair, the tension leaving the air, "I apologize for my reaction, Naruto-kun, but you are still a child, no matter how talented you are with the dead. I am the Hokage of Konoha and I will not be spoken to in that kind of manner."
"Sorry, Jiji," Naruto slouched, actually feeling sorry for his belligerence. Jiji had done a lot for him and didn't deserve attitude like that. Not wanting to give up completely though, he opened his eyes wide and tried to squeeze out a tear or two, "I'm just worried! What if Hari-chan stops talkin' ta me again? What if he don't like me anymore 'cause I'm not listening to him?"
Jiji hummed in the back of his throat and considered Naruto's concerns. "Has he done that before, Naruto-kun? Left you alone and not spoken to you?"
"Yeah! I didn't like it at all! He don't like Ibiki-ji either! Well," Naruto shrugged, calming just a little, "He's better now that Ibiki-ji isn't lettin' me into the interrogation rooms, but Hari-chan still don't like him. And when Kaka-nii and Ibiki-ji started trainin' me, Hari-chan stopped talking ta me, and he stopped listening ta me and everything!" Naruto threw his arms wide and collapsed back into his chair. It still hurt that Hari-chan had pretty much abandoned him like that. Hari-chan sounded sad when he said he was sorry, again.
Naruto huffed. He knew that Hari-chan was sorry and he forgave Hari-chan, but it still hurt.
A wrinkly hand reached up and scratched at an equally wrinkly cheek and Jiji hummed again. "You mean that Hari-chan didn't want you to have contact with Ibiki-san?"
"Nah," Naruto sighed, "He said that he was tryin' to protect me." Looking up at Old Man Sarutobi, Naruto questioned, "Why would I need protectin' from Ibiki-ji? He didn't hurt me."
With a look in his eye that Naruto recognized from Kaka-nii when his elder brother told him stories about his missions, Jiji shook his head, "I am unsure, Naruto-kun." Hari-chan insisted that that look meant Kaka-nii and Jiji were lying, but Naruto didn't want to believe Hari-chan, even though he kinda did.
"Okay, Jiji," Naruto looked at his feet idly while he kicked back and forth, scuffing the carpet. He didn't like it when Kaka-nii and Jiji lied to him and he knew that Hari-chan was just looking out for him by telling when they were, but it hurt him almost as much as Hari-chan not talking to him to know that his some of his favourite people lied to his face.
"Now, you said that Hari-san agreed with you that you should tell Sasuke about who you are," Jiji brought the conversation around to what they'd been talking about in the beginning and Naruto nodded, still put out by Jiji lying to him. "Do you, or Hari-chan, have a good reason that you can tell me as to why you want to tell him?"
"Well," Naruto brightened considerably, "I wanna tell him 'cause then maybe he'll stop tellin' me I'm a dobe in classes." Naruto rolled his eyes, "Even though half my classes are higher than his!" Naruto wasn't impressed that the 'class genius' didn't have some classes with him because he was too 'advanced' for his age. Hari-chan scoffed, saying that one would think that genius meant advanced. Naruto laughed and kept talking, "And Hari-chan says that I should tell him 'cause then maybe he'll be my friend." Naruto frowned for a moment, "He says that it's good to have friends my age. I don't know about that, 'cause everyone my age is so... stupid."
Jiji smiled, but it was sad and Hari told Naruto that it was because Jiji didn't like Naruto not having friends. "I think that Hari-chan is worried about you, Naruto." Naruto was pleased that Jiji didn't have that lying look in his eyes when he said that and so was Hari-chan. "Do you think that you could be be friends with Sasuke-kun even though you talk for his parents?"
Naruto had to think about that seriously. He'd been well trained by Ibiki-ji and knew that Sasuke would see him first as a channel to his parents and that it was hard sometimes for people to see past the initial bond to make other bonds. He'd seen it enough while he'd been under Ibiki-ji's supervision.
Could Sasuke see past his ability? Maybe not now, it was still to soon. But maybe? Hari-chan agreed with Naruto and Naruto smiled, "I think he's smart enough."
A concerned look appeared on Jiji's face and he leaned forward, "Do you think it's possible that Sasuke-kun will be your friend just to keep you around so that he'll be able to talk to his parents? I don't want you hurt, Naruto-kun."
"Nah," Naruto shook the concern off, "He knows that all he's gotta do is ask ANBU to talk ta me and I go over to see him. He don't have to be my friend to do that."
A shimmer in the corner of his eye caught Naruto's attention and he turned to look at fake-Tori. Naruto knew it was fake-Tori because Jiji didn't seem to notice him. Hari-chan told him that maybe he should tell Jiji about fake-Tori and Naruto shrugged. He kind of liked the mystery.
"So you will tell Sasuke-kun who you are?" Jiji asked and Naruto turned his attention back to Old Man Sarutobi.
"Yeah," Naruto jumped to his feet and stretched. He'd been sitting for so long~! How Jiji could stand to sit behind that big, awesome desk for so long without going crazy, Naruto didn't know. "I can go now, Jiji?"
Jiji smiled at him and nodded, gesturing to the door, "Go on, Naruto. Say hello to Kakashi-san for me, would you?"
"Okay!" Naruto bounced out of the office gleefully, fake-Tori following along sedately. Having fake-Tori around didn't really bother Naruto anymore, it had been months since he's shown up the first time. Fake-Tori didn't even talk to him anymore, just sort of hung out with him. Hari-chan said that it should bother him, but it didn't.
Naruto was sure that if fake-Tori could touch him, he'd be more worried, but fake-Tori didn't even talk, so he wasn't worried. Hari-chan told him that he wasn't worried because of what Ibiki-ji had done to him, but Naruto had no idea what that meant because Ibiki-ji hadn't done anything to him.
"Naruto-kun!" Anko meet him at the end of the hall before the stairs and Naruto flung himself into her arms.
"Anko-chan!" He liked Anko, she was awesome. She was ANBU, and she had snakes! Naruto liked snakes. Hari-chan was even teaching him how to talk to them! He wasn't very good at it, but Hari-chan said it was a good exercise in patients for them both. Naruto wasn't sure what he meant by that, but figured that if Hari-chan thought it was good, he'd keep at it.
And Anko-chan's snakes liked Anko-chan too, so Naruto knew that Anko-chan was awesome because you could always tell who was a good person and who wasn't by how well their pets liked them. Naruto liked the Inuzuka family as well, though he thought Kiba was a douchebag sometimes, for that same reason.
"Naruto-chan!" Anko-chan spun him around and 'round and then let him go. Naruto walked a few steps, weaving while he laughed. He liked being spun around like that and Anko-chan knew it. "What's up, Naruto-chan?"
"Imma make friends with Sasuke-teme!" Naruto exclaimed brightly, "And then you won't hafta keep leaving me notes!"
Anko-chan laughed again and ruffled his hair, leaning down so that her face was closer to his, "You'll have ta stop callin' him teme, then, won't yah?"
Naruto rolled his eyes and nodded, "Yeah, I know. Hari-chan don't like it when I call him teme anyway." He scowled, "Sasuke's a teme anyway."
"And why would you become friends with him then, Naruto-kun?" Anko held out her hand and Naruto happily took it, walking down the stairs with his favouritest girl in the whole world, "If you think he's such a teme?"
"'Cause he's kinda awesome too," Naruto snorted, "That's why he's more dumb than anyone else. He's not what everyone is sayin' he is, yah know," Naruto looked up to Anko, "He's not the 'last Uchiha'."
Anko nodded along with him, "I know, buddy," she led him through the side doors of the Hokage Tower and out into the streets, "He's still got a brother out there. But Itachi is effectively dead to Sasuke and the Uchiha clan, as he killed them. He besmirched his honour and now he's not a Uchiha at all."
Naruto chewed on that for a moment after Hari-chan told him what 'besmirched' was. He still wasn't sure what Anko-chan meant exactly, as the Uchiha clan was dead, but if Anko-chan and Hari-chan were in agreement about there still being a clan, he supposed that he could let it go.
"Anko-chan?" Naruto switched subjects immediately, having had enough of his day taken up with talking about Sasuke and Uchihas, "You're still ANBU, right?"
"Well, last I knew, I was," Anko ruffled his hair again, "You saw me last night, didn't you?"
"Yeah, but, see," Naruto debated his question for a second, "Who was Tori-chan before you?"
Anko-chan raised an eyebrow at him and Naruto clutched tight to Anko-chan's hand. He didn't want her to let go of him, he didn't want to have made her angry with him.
"I don't know, Naruto-chan. That's kept a secret. In fact, you shouldn't even know that I'm Tori even though you have a place in ANBU yourself."
"Huh." Naruto hummed to himself while he listened to Hari-chan insist that he told someone about fake-Tori. Naruto guessed that it wasn't a bad plan to do that, seeing as Hari-chan hadn't ever lead him wrong before. But he was having so much fun trying to guess who fake-Tori was that it was hard to let go of the mystery.
Naruto wanted to keep the mystery.
But Hari-chan was insistent and finally, with a sigh of exasperation, Naruto gave in. "I been seeing someone who's not dead," Naruto pouted. He didn't really want to say this. But maybe Anko-chan would help him with the mystery, instead of taking away from him? Anko-chan was awesome after all.
"Yeah?" Anko-chan bent over him and lifted him up so that he was sitting on her shoulders. Naruto laughed gaily as she jumped onto a roof and started running towards the wall. Well. Not so much the wall as the training areas. Where the Memorial Stone was.
Naruto knew very well where the Memorial Stone was because Kaka-nii was always there when he wasn't on missions or playing with Naruto. Sometimes even playing with Naruto, Kaka-nii hung out at the Memorial Stone.
"Yeah! He's not dead, but no one else can see him neither-" Hari-chan corrected him absently, "-either!" Naruto relished in the wind on his face. It felt like Hari-chan said flying felt and it was awesome!
"He been followin' you 'round, Naruto-chan?" Anko-chan hopped off the last roof and raced through the trees, bouncing like the squirrel on crack that Kaka-nii had accused Naruto of being.
Shrieking with laughter, Naruto clung tight to Anko-chan's hair and let the woman go wild in the trees. He didn't care when leaves smacked him in the face, or twigs scrapped his cheeks, it was too much fun moving this fast for him to bother complaining about such little things.
The stop at the end was a bit sudden, and Naruto shrieked again, almost overbalancing and falling over Anko-chan's head as she waved her arms around, trying to keep herself upright. When Naruto got balanced again, he looked around, his face red with humour.
"Naruto-kun?" Kaka-nii was at the Stone, not a surprise, but what was a surprise was that fake-Tori was there too. And someone else.
"Who's that?" Naruto scrambled off of Anko-chan, not really noticing how she had to catch him at least twice to make sure that he didn't fall head first into the ground and meandered over to Kaka-nii, fisting a hand in Kaka-nii's pants.
Kaka-nii petted his head and Naruto frowned. "Who's who, Naruto-kun?" Kaka-nii smiled his funny little smile with one eye and the new person choked.
"Kakashi? Smiling?" He didn't look very old, fourteen or fifteen and then Naruto noticed something else.
"Are you Obi-nii?" Naruto's eyes widened and he stared. Hari-chan told him to calm down, but it was hard. Naruto hadn't ever met Obi-nii before and it was exciting. "You're wearin' Obi-nii's goggles! Hey, hey! Look!" Naruto grabbed his own goggles and held them up, "I got a set too!" Obi-nii lifted the goggles from his face and Naruto's face screwed up in thought. "Wait, why don't you got no eyes? If you're Obi-nii, you oughta have one, 'cause you gived one to Kaka-nii."
"Maa," The not-Obi-nii smiled, "I'm not Obito-nii." He fiddled with the goggles and Naruto blinked at him, trying to think of who the strange dead dude was if it wasn't Obi-nii. Hari-chan told him to be careful so Naruto made sure that he was near Kaka-nii and Anko-chan. "I heard a lot about Kakashi from Obito-nii though. I'm surprised that he can smile."
"You said that already!" Naruto exclaimed, "What's your name?" Naruto made a point of being rude, pointing at the weird dead boy. Well. Maybe not boy. Hari-chan said that he looked older. Naruto didn't really care, he wasn't one to go around thinking about how old people were.
A hand grasped Naruto's shoulder tightly and Kaka-nii's grey eye was wide and shocked, "Naruto-kun, who are you talking to?"
"I don't know!" Naruto huffed, crossing his arms and staring at not-Obi-nii. "He won't tell me his name."
"But don't they have to listen to you?" Anko-chan's muttered softly.
It was barely heard by Naruto though as he pointed again and demanded loudly, "Tell me your name!"
"I am Uchiha Shisui." Shisui-not-Obi-nii bowed his head. "I heard from other members of the family that you could hear us."
"Yeah, yeah. Whatcha doing 'round Kaka-nii?" Naruto wasn't happy that some weird stranger was stalking his Nii-san. He'd thought that he'd dealt with the last of the Uchiha, leaving only Fugaku-san and Mikoto-san around. To have another one pop up out of nowhere was craziness!
"I also heard that he was close to you."
Calming down a bit with Hari-chan's whispers that he was scaring Kaka-nii with all his shouting, Naruto made an exasperated face, "You coulda just asked any of the dead people. They'd'a told yah were to find me." He shook his finger at Shisui-not-Obi-nii, "You aren't allowed to stalk my Nii-san, okay?"
"My apologies, Senkensha-sama. I will not 'stalk' Kakashi-san again." Shisui bowed his head and Naruto huffed.
"Good. Now-" Before Naruto could continue with his conversation, Kaka-nii rested a hand on his shoulder and squeezed it.
"Naruto-kun, who are you talking with?" His voice sounded strained and Hari-chan muttered something about how badly shinobi did shock.
Naruto looked up at his Nii-san and smiled winningly, "His name is Shisui-"
"I am Obito-nii-san's little brother," Shisui interjected and Naruto added that to his introduction.
"-Obi-nii's little brother!"
**To be Continued**